Naidu’s lunch in winter?
Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, on the penultimate day of the Parliament session, announced that he would like to invite all members for lunch on the last day of the session. Hearing this, MPs thumped their desks in delight. Pleased with the response, Naidu said, “It will be better if you clap after eating.” Members had just started discussing a bill before Naidu made the lunch announcement. Known for playing with words, Naidu said, “There will be no bill for lunch. It is free.” But the lunch had to be cancelled because of the death of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. When the House was adjourned sine die on Wednesday, PM Modi and leaders of other parties met at Naidu’s chamber for customary tea. On the cancellation of Naidu’s lunch, Modi suggested that the Chairman should host it during the winter session. Anand Sharma (Congress) asked Naidu whether he was trying to save on food by hosting the lunch. Before Naidu could say anything, Modi said, Naidu would never be a miser when it came to hosting friends and colleagues. The Leader of Opposition, Ghulam Nabi Azad, suggested that Naidu could bring prawns from his home-state Andhra Pradesh for the meal and “I would get good fish curry.”
Delhi suspected terrorists were planning something
The Sunday Guardian has learnt that the Central government recently started getting alarming reports that “something big was cooking in the Kashmir valley”. The Research and Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau, National Technical Research Organisation and the Army authorities started closely monitoring coded communications between terrorists in Kashmir and their handlers across the border. A picture began to emerge that something sinister was rolling. New Delhi began to suspect that terrorists may either capture a sensitive government establishment or take position in a big religious place and hoist its or an Islamic State flag. Meanwhile Imran Khan’s visit to the White House and Donald Trump’s offer to mediate in Kashmir, and Khan’s statement that Pakistan still had around 30,000 to 40,000 “militants” “who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir,” set the alarm bells ringing in South Block, which suspected that “something was cooking between Washington and Islamabad”. All this may have hastened the announcement abrogating Article 370.
Biju played a role in Kashmir
During the debate in Parliament on the J&K Reorganisation Bill scrapping Article 370, the Biju Janata Dal got the opportunity to tell a story about its founder leader Biju Patnaik playing a role in Kashmir when India got freedom. BJD MP Pinaki Misra told the House that on 27 October 1947, when Pakistani invaders were heading towards Srinagar and the then Maharaja Hari Singh left Srinagar, a flight under the command of Lt Gen Deewan Ranjit Roy with 17 soldiers of the First Sikh Regiment on board went there and saved Srinagar. “The man who flew the plane was Biju Patnaik,” said Misra. Patnaik flew several sorties on that day and took several batches of soldiers to Srinagar airport.
Earlier, in July 1947, Patnaik, on the advice of his friend Jawaharlal Nehru, flew to Java (Indonesia) to rescue Sultan Sjahrir, former Prime Minister, and flew him out on a Dakota military aircraft, reaching India via Singapore. For this act of bravery, Patnaik was given honorary citizenship of Indonesia and the highest Indonesian award of “Bhoomi Putra”. In 1996, when Indonesia was celebrating its 50th Independence Day, Biju Patnaik was awarded its highest national award, “Bintang Jasa Utama”.
‘Won’t accept Chinese Dalai’
Tibetan government-in-exile President Lobsang Sangay says that China is planning to foist on Tibetans the 15th Dalai Lama. “The Tibetans and Buddhists all over the world will not accept Beijing’s selected Dalai Lama,” Sangay told The Sunday Guardian. Sangay said that the Chinese have claimed that the successor to the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso—who lives in India—will be chosen by Beijing. “We believe in the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama’s consciousness and soul. And the Chinese are saying that they will choose the new Dalai Lama. The Chinese game-plan is to create confusion among the Tibetans with the emergence of two Dalai Lamas—one nominated by Beijing and the other by the Tibetan living in exile.” Meanwhile, the Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) on 17 August will kick off the Longsho Tour in New York City to celebrate 25 years of their organisation. Pema Doma, US Grassroots Coordinator, told this writer, “We are filled with a sense of unfinished business.”
Mahakaleshwar Gets Notes Counting Machine
After facing great hardship in counting the money received through donations, Ujjain’s famous Mahakaleshwar has got a note-counting machine from Bank of India as donation. Four banks had a tough time counting the donated notes and coins. In fact, just BOI employees were counting over 40 donation boxes placed at different spots on the temple premises. The boxes inside the sanctorum and the one at Nandi hall, which receive the major share of the donation, have to be opened at least once a week. But they remained untouched for long on many occasions.