JOIN USWeakened CM
As chief minister for 13 years, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has had a free hand to choose his confidantes for ministerial posts. That privilege was clearly denied to him for the first time by the BJP high command as a five-member cabinet was sworn-in on April 21. None of the five ministers including two Jyotiraditya Scindia supporters is considered loyal to Chouhan. Now that second, bigger cabinet expansion appears to be on cards, the chief minister is more worried as he is unable to assure his loyalists a berth in his ministry. The cabinet has 29 seats vacant. Of these, eight are ‘reserved’ for Jyotiraditya Scindia-supporters as per the deal the BJP had struck with the royal turncoat for toppling the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government. For the remaining 21, hectic lobbying is on among aspirants. Interestingly, the candidates are pushing their names for consideration of the BJP high command through the RSS rather than trying to woo the chief minister.
Rakesh Dixit, Bhopal
Digital tour
With museums shut due to lockdown, the National Gallery of Modern Art has taken the digital route to remember the stalwarts in Indian art. The NGMA launched a digital retrospective of the paintings, prints, rare photographs of Raja Ravi Varma to mark his 172nd birth anniversary and Jamini Roy on his 133 birth anniversary. The NGMA website has hosted a virtual tour of the works of Roy that has 203 out of the 215 in its permanent collection. In the Varma retrospective, viewers can begin their journey from Kilimanoor Palace in present-day Kerala, where he was born and raised and move on to the finer nuances found in his paintings. The NGMA is planning to take the digital route to showcase the works of other stalwarts in its collection.
Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi
A new need
One thing which Kolkata Police needs apart from personnel to enforce the lockdown is guardrails and a lot of them. According to police sources in a normal situation, they need about 10,000 guardrails in the city on weekdays and on Sunday in case there is major political gathering they need about 6000 to 7000 guardrails.“But since the lockdown started we have to use 14,000 guardrails in Kolkata to enforce the lockdown which is the lion’s share of our total stock. With the price of each guardrails varying from Rs. 3800 to to Rs. 5000 total cost of all the guardrails in use is about Rs. 7 crores,” said a senior Kolkata Police official.
Soumya Das, Kolkata
Wooing philanthropists
During his daily press briefing on Covid updates, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan used to read out a long list of key contributions received to the CMDRF for Covid relief activities. But as the list became lengthier day by day, the CM himself said that he would stop reading out the list, instead, it would be provided to the media. The next day, the CM corrected his stand. He said that there were suggestions from certain quarters that reading out the list of contributors could be motivation for more to contribute. This triggered doubts whether the party cadres were wooing many to contribute handsome amounts to CMDRF by offering an announcement by the CM during his live press meet, which has a huge viewership.
Arjun Raghunath, Thiruvananthapuram
Tweets can wait
After the video of a family carrying the dead body of a pregnant lady, who died due to alleged medical negligence in Kashmir went viral on social media, authorities ordered a probe into the incident. Ordering a probe after every death due to medical negligence and other issues has become routine in Kashmir. But most of these probes have never seen conclusion. But this time babus in Kashmir are busy sharing their efforts on Twitter. Denying an ambulance for a dead body to be carried home is the height of insensitivity. Tweets can wait. Bodies can’t!
Zulfikar Majid, Srinagar