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HomePre-TruthSt Stephen’s grad Amitabh Kant calls Hindu College ‘lousy’ at IIC event

St Stephen’s grad Amitabh Kant calls Hindu College ‘lousy’ at IIC event

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Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.

NITI Aayog CEO’s barbs about Hindu College

The St Stephen’s vs Hindu rivalry came into play at a book launch at the India International Centre in New Delhi recently. At the launch of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s book, Road Ahead, on 27 September, the author told union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, an alumnus of Hindu College, that he was in a “lousy” college across the road. Kant is a Stephanian. He went on to add that since Puri later taught at St Stephen’s, he excelled in life thereafter.


Why RSS is peeved at BJP leader Ram Madhav 

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav’s description of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s three-day lecture series in Delhi last week as “a Glasnost moment” hasn’t gone down well with his former organisation. In his lectures and question-answer session at Vigyan Bhawan, Bhagwat had indicated an ideological shift on many contentious issues, including its approach to Muslims. In an article in The Indian Express, Ram Madhav wrote how in the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev brought ‘Glasnost’ or openness in the thinking and actions of the then Soviet Union. But driving home the new thinking within the rank and file of the organisation requires no less than a ‘Perestroika’ — restructuring — said the BJP general secretary. It has drawn sharp reactions from Sangh leaders. “This genius thinks we were the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) before this,” said a top RSS leader.


Also read: In Bhopal, PM Modi invoked many top leaders except his favourite Ambedkar


Modi’s Twitter bonhomie with non-BJP CMs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to set aside bitter political differences for a day Thursday, at least on Twitter. On World Tourism Day on 27 September, chief ministers of different states tweeted about what their respective state has to offer to tourists. PM Modi decided to retweet from his personal handle not just BJP CMs but also those from other parties who had tweeted on the occasion. Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan were among the chief ministers of rival parties whose messages were retweeted by the PM. Incidentally, Modi’s political equations with Banerjee, Patnaik and Vijayan are turbulent, to say the least.


Maharashtra MLA ‘misbehaved’ with IAS officer

Maharashtra’s bureaucrats are upset with an independent MLA Omprakash Babarao Kadu, popularly known as Bachu Kadu, for allegedly threatening to hit an IAS officer and shouting at him. Kadu reportedly threatened to hit P. Pradeep, director, information technology, with a laptop at the latter’s office in Mantralaya in Mumbai. Kadu is said to have lost his temper while questioning the IAS officer of the 2009 batch about his letters to the department and the CM regarding a government examination portal for students. A video of the altercation has been doing the rounds within bureaucratic circles, in which the MLA and his followers can be seen raising their voice at the officer, telling him to remember that he is after all a public servant. Bureaucrats say the MLA has a history of misbehaving with officers.


Also readModi govt turns to Kailash Kher, Mohit Chauhan to add glitz to Surgical Strike Day


CJI Misra’s ‘poetic justice’

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, despite having a busy week, took time out to release a book this week. The book, Thus Spake Their Lordships, is a collection of quotable sayings and witty remarks, something that one can find in plenty in CJI Misra’s judgments. At the event, he spoke freely, evoking laughter from the audience and said he had no inner conflict of being a poet and judge and even composed a small poem on the spot. The hour-long event was in complete contrast to his guarded behavior since the medical college scandal erupted.


Shatrughan Sinha wants to contest from both Patna & Delhi

Disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha has told the Aam Aadmi Party that he owes a lot to the people of Patna who have supported him all these years. So, contesting from a Delhi seat would seem ungrateful. He has told them to give him tickets from both Patna and Delhi, but party leaders insist it can only be from the national capital.


Bureaucrat caught in Rafale row

Rajeev Verma, joint secretary (air), ministry of defence, was in the eye of a political storm recently after Congress president Rahul Gandhi latched on to a newspaper report to allege that he had been targeted and sent on leave by the government for trying to stop “theft” in the controversial Rafale deal. The official clarified later that he had gone for a week-long course at Cambridge and it had been planned much in advance. Verma has since moved to the ministry of housing and urban affairs. He shares something common with his new boss, Hardeep Singh Puri. The minister also held the post of joint secretary (air) when George Fernandes was defence minister.

(Contributors: Ruhi Tewari, Apurva Vishwanath, Manasi Phadke and Kumar Anshuman)

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Now a days all practicing politicians from Bihar want to stand from DELHI in an election. Over crowding Indian urban centres .Harshamoy mukherjee

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