When Telangana CM stands up to Centre
When it comes to press conferences and the use of expletives, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seems to be outdoing himself. His media address on Tuesday, in reaction to the Union Budget, went on for over2.5 hours. The CM called the budget a “golmaal - useless, purposeless”. He applied several more such adjectives for the Narendra Modi government and hurled abuses on the BJP leaders. So furious was KCR, while accusing the Centre of being unsupportive to his state, that at one point he demanded that the Constitution should be rewritten, for, the Centre was “usurping powers of the states with the concurrent list.”
KCR targeted BJP’s social media posts too. He accused the saffron party of spreading lies in the poll-bound northern states that “Modi got the Sriramanujacharya statue installed in Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s home-turf.” “The project was entirely conceptualised and executed by Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, his followers by collecting donations. Modi had no clue that such a mega project was taken up,” KCR said. On Saturday, KCR kept away from the event where PM Modi inaugurated the statue, and the unofficial reason given was CM’s mild fever. Some BJP leaders quipped that fear of Modi gave KCR a sudden fever.
Prasad Nichenametla,
Hyderabad
‘3% divorces in Mumbai because of roads’
Maharashtra’s leader of the Opposition and BJP stalwart Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis courted controversy yet again when she said that nearly 3% of divorces happen in Mumbai because of road conditions. “I’m saying this as a common citizen. Once I go out, I see several issues including potholes, traffic. Due to traffic, people are unable to give time to their families… 3% divorces in Mumbai are happening due to it,” said Amruta, a banker by profession, who is also a singer and activist.
However, Shiv Sena hit back at her. “There can be many reasons for divorce but I have heard this for the first time,” said Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar. “Best (il)logic of the day award goes to the lady who claims 3% Mumbaikars are divorcing due to traffic on roads. Please take a holiday break rather than having a mind on break. Bengaluru families please avoid reading this, this can prove fatal for your marriages,” tweeted Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi.
Mrityunjay Bose,
Mumbai
Assam girl’s jumbo game
A video showing Harshita Bora, a six-year-old girl child playing football with a domestic elephant and trying to drink its milk in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district drew a lot of attention on social media recently. The little girl was seen playing in zest around the jumbo, hugging and kissing its trunk. The elephant was also seen responding to the child by swinging its trunk at her. The child was seen reaching to the elephant’s udder to suck milk. The heartwarming video was seen and shared by many on social media at a time Golaghat is witnessing serious human-wild elephant conflicts for the past several years.
Sumir Karmakar,
Guwahati
Wrong parking nuisance
Wrong parking on Srinagar roads is a common sight. With every passing day, the situation is becoming tougher. Despite the directions from the high court, violators on city roads park their vehicles at all wrong places. Hundreds of wrongly parked vehicles are fined every week on the spot. Some are towed away to pave the way for a smooth and hassle-free movement of the traffic on the congested roads in Srinagar. People who park their vehicles in the middle of the road while making purchases in markets then show a different attitude when others do the same.
Zulfikar Majid,
Srinagar