An elite election
It’s not only in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, where campaigning has reached a feverish pitch ahead of the assembly elections—scheduled for 5 October in Haryana and 1 October for the third and final phase in J&K. In the capital, too, campaigning is underway for another high-stakes election, albeit on a smaller scale. Elections for the exclusive Delhi Golf Club, coveted stomping grounds of the Capital’s elite, are set to take place Saturday.
There are two candidates vying for the club’s president post—former Union finance secretary Ratan P. Watal, and entrepreneur Raj Khosla, founder and managing director of MyMoneyMantra, a financial services marketplace in India.
Watal, who has been a trusted and high-profile bureaucrat in the Modi government, is a 1978 batch IAS officer. He retired as finance secretary in 2016 but has since held plum posts, first serving as principal advisor at NITI Aayog and later as secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Currently, he is the chairman of the central government’s Central Vista Oversight Committee.
Golf Club insiders say a high-pitch campaign is currently on by the two candidates to woo the 900 permanent members of the club. In his biodata in the DGC brochure, Watal mentions that he served in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C. for four years, where he regularly played golf at the Bretton Woods Club.
This is not the first time a former bureaucrat has contested for the top post of the elite club. Historically, it has been a favoured spot for former bureaucrats and Army officers, many of whom have gone on to occupy the president’s chair.
Kissa ek pagdi ka
Sartorial enthusiasts have long been captivated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s selection of pagdis (turbans or headgear) worn each Independence Day. However, the PM isn’t the only one with a fondness for pagdis, a senior bureaucrat in his government also shares a heartwarming connection to this traditional attire.
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra surprised many by donning a pagdi during a tree plantation event on 19 September. It also happened to be his birthday.
Later, when prodded by colleagues, Chandra narrated the backstory of his pagdi.
It goes back to 1997, when Chandra, in the early years of his IAS career, served as the collector of Solapur, Maharashtra. There, he had guided a small-time farmer on how to improve his yield and helped him secure a loan through a government scheme. Over time, the farmer’s produce grew and his circumstances improved. Today, he exports much of his produce, including grapes and organic vegetables.
But he never forgot Chandra.
Since receiving the loan, the farmer has made it a tradition to personally visit Chandra every year on his birthday, no matter where he is posted, bringing him a pagdi—a symbol of honour and respect. As the farmer aged, his son took on the responsibility of maintaining this tradition. This year, he flew to Delhi to present the pagdi, which Chandra wore during the tree plantation drive.
A 1988 batch IAS officer, Chandra is set to retire on 30 September.
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Maharashtra’s own ‘rockstar’
The Coldplay fever that swept the country Sunday, with fans waiting in virtual queues for hours, has spread to Maharashtra politics. The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) quickly jumped on the trend, creating a meme portraying its leader, Uddhav Thackeray, as an equally popular, but a more accessible Chris Martin.
The meme features Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin holding a microphone at a concert, surrounded by crowds of fans raising up their mobile phones, bringing alive the Coldplay song ‘Sky Full of Stars’. The meme then showcases Thackeray holding a mic at a rally, with supporters doing the same for him. The Shiv Sena says, while the former is “tough to book”, the latter is “always there for you”.
UP politicians’ new love
Prime Minister Modi’s affection for a calf of Andhra’s Punganur cow breed has set a new standard for love for animals among politicians in Uttar Pradesh. While it’s not uncommon for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to emulate the PM, this time, even Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is displaying his love for animals.
Days after the Prime Minister’s Office shared photos of Modi with a newborn calf named Deepjyoti on his official X handle, a pair of Punganur cows arrived at Gorakhnath peeth, where Adityanath serves as the mahant. The Chief Minister’s office announced this with pictures and videos of Adityanath personally tending to the cows, feeding them jaggery and playing with them. While caressing the animals, he is heard asking, “Arrey, tumhe maa ki yaad aa rahi hai na?” (You’re missing your mother, aren’t you?)
Not to be left behind, the SP chief, a known environmentalist, too shared a picture of himself posing with a beautiful but short white horse. Asking netizens to guess the name of the horse, he remarked: “Yun toh kad me chhota thoda hai, par lambi race ka ghoda hai (he’s a little short, but is a horse meant for the long race). Netizens identified the horse as the Lipizzan horse which is found in Europe but has Arabic origin. The horse is a short breed that can typically grow to a height of 5.16 feet.
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