Indian diplomatic missions across the world celebrated International Yoga Day on 21 June. The best pictures to motivate others came from Sri Lanka. The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka tweeted a picture of Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (75) and wife Shiranthi Rajapaksa (68), child psychologist, doing yoga. While Rajapaksa was seen doing ‘naukasana’ with yoga props, Shiranthi was seen doing ‘shirshasana’ (headstand) with ropes. The Indian High Commission tweeted, “Our sincere gratitude to Hon’ble PM Rajapaksa, and Madam Shiranthi Rajapaksa for this inspiring glimpse of one of your yoga sessions. Millions of yoga enthusiasts will continue to be enthused…” Rajapaksa later tweeted: “Yoga is about creating a balance in life. Its about balancing your senses, your body soul & mind in order to live a healthy & peaceful life, As we celebrate International #YogaDay, I encourage all to engage in yoga, as not does it replenish the spirit, it also calms the mind.”
President Kovind’s First Native UP Village Visit
As President Ram Nath Kovind has one year for his term to end, he finally found time to visit his native village in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, during the weekend. Recently, Kovind made up his mind to go to his village without further delay as it would be worth visiting as “Rashtrapati”. On the President’s desire to travel by train, a special rail service was organized from the Safdarjung railway station in Delhi on Friday for his village, Paraunkh, in Kanpur Dehat. Earlier, only two Presidents, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had taken the train journeys. Kovind’s train schedule had two stop-overs, at Jhinjhak and Rura of Kanpur Dehat, close to his village, so that he could interact with his school days and early days social service acquaintances. Kovind’s ancestral home has been made into a community centre after refurbishing. UP CM Yogi Adityanath, who met the President during his last visit to Delhi, accompanied him to the village.
LS Speaker Makes Life Easier For MPs
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has put many good practices in the Parliament’s functioning. As an MP, Birla used to send his personal assistant to the Lok Sabha Secretariat to collect the CD after making a speech or submissions and had to wait for it for long, as did all MPs. After becoming the Speaker, Birla decided to make things easier for MPs. Now, each member would get the video clip of their speeches and submissions on their phone. Research materials required for members have been made online. MPs can also ask for books from the library, which will be sent to their residences in the nation capital.
Thieves steal Cow Dung in Chhattisgarh
For thieves, anything that can fetch them money for livelihood is good enough, even if it happens to be cow dung. Cow dung has attracted thieves’ attraction. Cow dung is turning out to be “new gold” for thieves in tribal Chhattisgarh’s rural areas. Some days ago, cow dung worth Rs 1,600 was stolen from Dhurena village, District Korba. A formal complaint was lodged by Kamhan Singh Kanwar, the head of village Gauthan Samiti. “It was an unusual theft. So, we first did not believe it,” Dipka Station House Officer Harish Tandekar told this paper. “Though the quantity of the stolen property was too small, a theft is a theft…this has alerted us about a new breed of thieves.”
NRI businessman ‘flies solo’ to UAE
They are not Ambanis and Adanis or any VIP, but they have flown to Dubai as solo passengers in separate flights. A Dubai-based businessman and philanthropist Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi had the entire Air India plane to himself while flying from India to the UAE. Oberoi was in Gurdaspur (Punjab) some days ago to buy land to setup a pathological laboratory. When he reached the Amritsar airport around midnight to catch the early-morning flight (AI 929) to Dubai, he was told that he could not board the plane without assigning any valid reason. “What reason?” shocked Oberoi asked as he had a valid confirmed ticket that he had purchased for 740 dirhams (Rs 14,800). “I tried to reason out with the airline staff but to no avail,” Oberoi told The Sunday Guardian from Dubai. The aircraft had flown in from the UAE and it was on its return journey. “First, I thought they were not permitting me to board due to Covid-19 restrictions. I told them that I had a valid Covid-19 negative test,” said Oberoi. As half-an-hour was left for the plane to take-off, Oberoi made some desperate phone calls to “important people in New Delhi”. Then only things started moving. Oberoi had flown to India from Dubai on 12 June. The UAE had suspended entry for passengers from India on 24 April following second wave with only certain categories allowed to fly into the country, including members of diplomatic missions, golden visa holders, UAE nationals granted permission by UAE authorities. Oberoi could finally fly as he is a UAE golden visa holder.