I AM ABHIMANYU: DUSHYANT CHAUTALA
Haryana’s 22-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is facing a serious “family feud” among the Chautalas who run it. The INLD patriarch Om Prakash Chautala is serving a 10-year jail term in the teachers’ recruitment scam. Dushyant’s father Ajay Singh Chautala is also serving a jail sentence.
Om Prakash Chautala’s grandson, Dushyant Chautala, Hisar MP, who was served a show-cause notice and reportedly suspended from the INLD last week in the wake of ruckus by his supporters in the Gohana rally, has been keeping everyone guessing on his next move. He has addressed several meetings of his supporters and described himself as “Abhimanyu of Mahabharata”.
Dushyant is embroiled in a feud with his uncle and Leader of the Opposition, Abhay Singh Chautala. Dushyant’s suspension has created ripples in the Jat party, which is going for an electoral alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati for the 2019 Lok Sabha and subsequently Haryana Assembly polls.
KATJU SUGGESTS ‘MANN KI BAAT NAGAR’
Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju is upset over the renaming of Allahabad as Prayagraj ahead of the Kumbha Mela in 2019. Katju, who is originally from Allahabad, has asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth to change the name of the state’s several cities to “eliminate names of these Babur ki Aulad altogether”. Katju has suggested some out-of-box names for three UP cities. He says that Faizabad should be renamed as “Narendra Modipur”, Moradabad should become “Mann Ki Baat Nagar” and Fatehpur be called “Amit Shah Nagar”.
Meanwhile, after Allahabad becoming Prayagraj, similar demands are doing the rounds in BJP circles for rechristening “non-Hindu sounding” cities like Ahmedabad and Bhopal. It is being suggested that Ahmedabad should be renamed as Karnavati and Bhopal should be called Bhojpal.
Since 2014, when the Modi government came to power, several proposals have been made by BJP leaders to rename cities which remind them of the Mughal era. They want Patna to be renamed as Patliputra, Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar, and Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar.
In 2007, former Bihar CM and RJD chief Lalu Prasad had demanded that the state capital Patna be renamed as Azimabad. Apparently, it was a move to appease Muslims. It is said that Patna was renamed as Azimabad around 1704 by Prince Azim-us-Shan. But there were hardly any takers for the changed name and the city switched back to its original name.
Suggestions have also been given by BJP leaders to rename Kerala as Keralam, Nagaland as Naganchi and Goa as Govapuri. A Delhi BJP leader says that “Delhi has Babar Road, but no Rana Sanga road because Babar came and won while Rana Sanga lost. It’s time we started reclaiming our own.”
GOLDEN TEMPLE DOORS NOT GONE TO SOMNATH
In Punjab, false propaganda is being spread on social media that the 210-year-old doors of Darshani Deori leading to the sanctum sanctorum of Amritsar’s Golden Temple have been “returned” to the Somnath temple in Gujarat on the orders of a top central BJP functionary.
Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh told The Sunday Guardian that these reports were misleading as the original doors had been kept in the parikrama of the Golden Temple complex.
It all started when new doors were installed on 6 October to replace the historic doors pertaining to the Maharja Ranjit Singh era. “Since the doors were beyond repair and restoration, the Sikh Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee got these replaced. The devotees can have a glimpse of these doors,” Singh said.
THE FUTURE IS HANDMADE
The Ministry of Textile has unveiled its design concepts on the theme “Future Is Handmade” to be presented at Ambiente Frankfurt in 2019, from 8 to12 February. The focus of the worldwide consumer goods market is set on India as the nation gets ready to hold the title of partner country at Ambiente 2019, the world’s oldest, biggest and most important international trade platform for interior decor, dining, cooking, household goods, gift items, jewellery and accessories. India remains one of the few countries whose weavers and artisans still create textiles and crafts. To promote them and handicraft exports, the Ministry, together with Messe Frankfurt, has chosen the design concepts on the lines of “FUTURE IS HANDMADE”.
“We want to position India on the world map of design and decor,” a top official of the Ministry told The Sunday Guardian.
India’s young talents, Jaipur-based Designer Ayush Kasliwal and Bengaluru’s Sandeep Sangaru have been nominated to design the India pavilion and the café, respectively. The themes and design concepts will be curated by Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India.
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com