RSS-AFFILIATE QUESTIONS DISINVESTMENT
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is affiliated to the RSS, has questioned the government’s disinvestment policy. The BMS has decided to launch a seven-day nation-wide “Jagaran Abhiyan” from 1 September to “save the public sector”. NITI Aayog has identified 92 of the existing 300 Public Sector Undertakings for disinvestment as they were running into losses. The BMS has decided to meet parliamentarians, including those from Opposition parties, to pressurise the government to abandon its disinvestment move, BMS president C.K. Saji Narayanan told this newspaper.
NO KHAN MARKET, PLEASE
On the first day of the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha, Parliament House looked like a university campus receiving freshers, all decked up in the finest outfits. A number of first timers were seen exploring the circular building and exchanging mobile numbers with each other and taking selfies. Many MPs were seen asking their seniors about the best eating and shopping places in the national capital. An NDA alliance member casually told a first-time BJP MP that “the coolest place nearby is Khan Market”. To which, the BJP MP reacted sharply: “Are you a friend or an enemy? I don’t want to go to the Khan Market gang’s den. Modiji will fire me.”
BJP’s Bhopal MP, Pragya Singh Thakur was a big attraction in the House. While taking her oath in Sanskrit, she took the name of her guru, Poorn Chetnand Avdheshanand Giri. Opposition members raised the objection that she modified the words of the oath. She may not be able to enjoy an uninterrupted Parliament session as a National Investigation Agency court on Thursday rejected her demand for permanent exemption from weekly appearance in the Malegaon case.
NEW TEMPLATE IN RAJYA SABHA
Netting four out of six Telugu Desam Party’s Rajya Sabha members may be BJP working president J.P. Nadda’s first achievement. A senior BJP leader proudly told journalists: “It was our party’s surgical strike in the TDP camp.” Chandrababu Naidu was abroad with his family on a holiday when the defections happened. “We hope to strengthen the BJP in AP.” Nadda said.
The four who defected are Y.S. Chowdary, C.M. Ramesh, T.G. Venkatesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao.
Chowdary was heard saying that “we are going by the country’s mood, which is for the BJP”. He was known as a confidant of Naidu, who telephoned him from abroad to dissuade him from joining the BJP.
“This is the BJP’s new template to increase its numbers in the House,” a top Congress leader told The Sunday Guardian. “For many MPs switching over to the BJP it is an insurance cover as they are facing serious criminal charges,” he said.
The CBI is investigating Chowdary in a case of bank fraud. Two others who defected, while Ramesh’s and Venkatesh’s business premises and homes were raided by the Income Tax Department during the elections. The BJP had earlier described them as “the Mallyas”.
MP GETS MARRIED, MISSES OATH
Bengali film actress and first time MP from Basirhat in West Bengal, Nusrat Jahan missed her oath taking ceremony in the Lok Sabha as she got married to businessman Nikhil Jain in the Turkish town of Bodrum on Wednesday. Another Bengali actress and Jadavpur MP, Mimi Chakraborty, too missed her oath taking ceremony as she was a guest at the wedding.
The wedding took place in the presence of close relatives and friends in the port town in Mugla province on the southern Aegean coast of Turkey.
AND NOW, BHAGWAN TRUMP
If Donald Trump gets to know that he has been elevated to the status of “God” in a Telangana village, he may for once tweet that this is not fake news. Bussa Krishna (32), a farmer in Konne village in Jangaon district in the state, treats Trumps as “God”. He daily worships Trump for his “strong leadership”. He has erected a six-foot-tall statue of Trump at his home at the cost of Rs 1.3 lakh. He organised a feast for the villagers for this purpose. After unveiling the Trump statue, he applied a tilak on it and garlanded it before performing an abhishekam and aarti by chanting “Jai Jai Trump”. On 14 June, when Trump celebrated his 73rd birthday, Krishna pasted a poster of the US President outside his home to wish him long life. Krishna says he wants to meet Trump. It is not known whether Krishna wants to migrate to the US.