New Delhi: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has often taken a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by calling him ‘Baba Bulldozer’, appears to have found a new way to target his political rival.
At a recent press conference, Akhilesh played a video showing a group of Japanese students taking selfies with Yogi Adityanath. The students were also seen placing their hands on the CM’s shoulder. Though that was an unusual visual for UP’s power circle, the video had the Boney M. hit ‘Rasputin’ playing in the backdrop.
Akhilesh then decided to play the song separately. After the song played for three minutes, he pointed to a lyric with the phrase “hunger for power”. Drawing an indirect parallel with Uttar Pradesh politics, Akhilesh suggested that someone in the state had a similar “hunger for power”—an apparent dig at Adityanath—though he did not name him directly.
Released in 1978 by the German disco group Boney M., ‘Rasputin’ is based on the life of Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic who became a close confidant of Tsar Nicholas II (Russian emperor) and his family in the early 20th century. The song portrays Rasputin as a charismatic mystic, womaniser and influential political figure, who wielded considerable influence at the Russian imperial court. In 1916, a group of Russian nobles plotted to kill Rasputin because they believed he was harming the monarchy.
DK Shivakumar & the teleprompter
It appears that Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has borrowed the practice of using a teleprompter for public speeches from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While Shivakumar is widely recognised for his political acumen, organisational skills, and troubleshooting abilities, public oratory is not considered his strongest trait. To help him stay on track and avoid digressions, his team has introduced him to the teleprompter.
“He has been practicing speeches on teleprompters. Sometimes, the speed of the ticker is a challenge,” a source close to the CM noted on condition of anonymity. He was seen veering off topic at a recent public event, and the teleprompter operator juggling with the device to get the speech back on track.
His Independence Day address marked his third speech using the device.
Naidu’s latest fixation
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s latest fixation and pet peeve is the under-utilisation of solar energy in the state. This dominates every discussion and meeting, with the CM asking officials to propose alternate ways of enhancing the adoption of renewable energy by consumers across the state.
Officials from one of Andhra’s discoms told ThePrint that Naidu is aiming for at least 50 percent of Andhra’s electricity consumption to come from renewable energy by the end of 2031. While the exercise of electrifying the state through solar energy will begin with government institutions making the first move by installing solar panels, the bugbear has gotten so pervasive that the CM even talked of the glass facades of high rises being strapped on with solar panels.
Officials further say that the solarisation of Andhra is the CM Naidu’s pet project, equating a similar penchant he had for rain water harvesting in the 1990s. Back then, Naidu had introduced a subsidy scheme for residents in Hyderabad to embrace the rain water harvesting technology to improve the city’s water table which was reeling from a severe water crisis.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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