Tag

Congress

Browsing

Since the announcement for the creation of PM CARES two things have come in abundance, funds and criticisms. So, is the fund for the good of the nation or the netas? Read on to find out.

PM Modi announced the creation of a new fund, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund or PM-CARES Fund on March 28th. Since this announcement money has poured in from around the nation. However, in addition to money, criticisms of the fund have also been pouring in.

The main criticism directed at this fund was a question on its existence and need. The critiques say that PMNRF or Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, from whom PM Cares borrows its structure, should have been used. But before diving deeper, let us know the two funds.

What is PM-Cares Fund?

The fund was created specifically for the current pandemic. The government stated that due to the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic, the fund has been created exclusively to fight this outbreak. Officially the fund ‘is to be used for combating, containment and relief efforts against the coronavirus outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.’

Barely a week after the fund was set up, donations pledged to it have crossed over Rs 6,500 crore more than three times its counterpart PMNRF got in the years 2014-15 and 2018-19. Similar to PMNRF, PM Cares is a 100% donation based fund. In addition to this donations to the fund by corporates will be exempted under the Income Tax, 1961 and are also counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure. The officials further stated that to spend from the Consolidated Fund of India, the Parliament’s approval was required while a donation-based fund did not have any such legislative concerns.

According to the PM Cares fund website, “the Prime Minister is the ex-officio (by virtue of one’s position or status) Chairman of the Fund while the Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund. The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees (Prime Minister) shall have the power to nominate three trustees to the Board of Trustees who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy. Any person appointed a Trustee shall act in a pro bono (work undertaken voluntarily and without payment) capacity.”

PMNRF: The Case of the CounterpartT

he Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or PMNRF was established on January 1948 by the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. The fund was established to help the people who were victims of mass migration and violence post-independence. Through the passage of time the fund evolved to help the victims of riots, floods, tsunamis, naxal attacks and the fund is also used to sponsor medical treatment of the needy. The fund was used extensively to provide support for victims of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Uttarakhand floods 2013, cyclone in Kerala and Lakshadweep, 2014 violence in Assam, Madhya Pradesh explosion 2015, Tamil Nadu floods 2015 etc.

The PMNRF, before 1985 was a trust consisting of the following people in its board:

  1. Prime Minister
  2. Deputy Prime Minister
  3. President of the Indian National Congress
  4. Finance Minister
  5. A representative of the Tata Trustees
  6. A member of industry and commerce, as decided by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

However, after the year 1985, this structure of the fund was changed by the Rajiv Gandhi government. The fund has since been functioning under the discretion and directions of the prime minister. According to the information provided by the fund, the prime minister is the secretary of the fund, assisted by a joint-secretary and an officer of the rank of director, all on an honorary basis. In short the PM has sole discretion over its use.

The Concerns

Several people including political parties like the Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena, and Trinamool Congress. Etc. have raised concerns related to this fund. The first concern is the need for a new fund when one, i.e. PMNRF, already exists. To this concern the government officials stated that PM Cares was established exclusively for fighting the pandemic due to its magnitude and PMNRF fund has not been closed but still remains very much functional.

Secondly, the auditing of the fund by independent auditors and not the CAG raised many eyebrows. However, both PMNRF as well as PM CARES are donation based funds and hence do not qualify for CAG auditing. Further the government has still not made the charter and other information like collection and expenditure of the fund public. In addition to this it is a valid point that the central government should have encouraged donations to state funds. As many states governments are seeing their revenue incomes dry up due to low consumption of oil as well as liquor and are hence in dire need of funds.

Various questions on the legality of the fund were also raised. However they were put to rest after the Supreme Court of India dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Manohar Lal Sharma for questioning the legality of the constitution of PM CARES Fund for COVID-19.

Abhinandan Kaul, a student of St. Stephen’s College, says, ”Public participation is the key to mitigate issues facing our nation and society. PM Cares puts this very fundamental idea in action by enabling micro-donations allowing not only prominent celebrities and businessmen but also ordinary people of the country to contribute with small amounts of money too as a result of which more than 40 crore Indians have been able to send in donations. Hence in my opinion, PM cares is a very well-conceived idea for Indians to come together and fight against Covid-19!”
Akshat Singh Rathore, a student of Shri Venkateshwara College, says, “Even though I think that the government is doing commendable work battling this virus. But, the PM CARES is shady in many terms. If the government is taking donations from us then we as citizens have a right to know as to where our money goes. And if they are all clean then this shouldn’t be a problem.”
The effectiveness of this fund will come to light in coming days. But it is rather astounding that all of India came together to fight this global pandemic. The government has to answer many concerns related to fund and till then all of the nation should support their respective governments and authorities to be victorious in the battle against this wretched virus.

Featured Image Credits: PM Cares
(Arre.co.in)

Aniket Singh Chauhan

[email protected]

With the Delhi Assembly elections today, let’s take a look at the candidates competing against incumbent Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Chief Ministerial candidate- Arvind Kejriwal.

Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s Incumbent Chief Minister, is once again the chief ministerial candidate from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) contesting from the New Delhi constituency. The New Delhi constituency was created by the delimitation commission in 2008. Historically, it has always been the constituency, which has been held by the Chief Ministers, as Sheila Dixit represented the constituency in the 2008 Elections before Kejriwal. The New Delhi Constituency has a sizeable population of Government employees and falls in the posh localities of Delhi.

With neither Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), nor the Indian National Congress (INC), releasing the names of their chief ministerial candidates, let’s take a look at the candidates competing from the New Delhi Constituency.

Sunil Yadav (BJP)

Sunil Yadav is an advocate by profession. Yadav started his political career as a Party’s Yuva Morcha. He currently holds the President’s Office of Yuva Morcha, Bharatiya Janata Party, Delhi (BJYM Delhi). He is the former Secretary of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. While it was rumoured for him to get a ticket in the 2013 and 2015 Elections, this is Yadav’s first time contesting as a candidate.

Talking about the focus on national issues in the BJP manifesto over local issues, Sunil Yadav, said to theIndian Express, that he was fighting the election on local agenda. “I am talking about people living in clusters in my constituency. I am talking about their water and electricity bills.” He also claims, he is confident of a victory with a margin of 25,000 votes.

Romesh Sabharwal (INC)

Romesh Sabharwal is a former Student Leader, who has been associated with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and the Youth Congress three decades back. He was the President of NSUI Delhi State. This is Sabharwal’s first time contesting as a candidate.

He also claims that he is confident to beat Arvind Kejriwal. “He may be the CM of Delhi, but I am a local, as a Government servant and an honest taxpayer who understands the needs of the residents of the constituency,” Romesh Sabharwal told India Today.

Arvind Kejriwal (AAP)

Arvind Kejriwal joined politics formally in 2012, when he launched the Aam Aadmi Party. Before joining politics, Kejriwal worked in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as a Joint Commissioner, Income Tax in New Delhi. He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering, from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

In 2006, Kejriwal was awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in recognition of his involvement in the grassroots level movement Parivartan, using Right to Information legislation, in a campaign against corruption, post which he resigned from the Government Service. He has also been monumental in leading the Jan Lokpal Anti- Corruption movement, along with Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, in 2011.

Following the 2013 Delhi Assembly Elections, Arvind Kejriwal first took office as the Chief Minister of Delhi, in December 2013. However, in February 2014, he resigned due to his minority Government’s inability to pass his proposed anti-corruption legislation pertaining to lack of support from other political parties. In the 2015 Delhi Assembly Elections, the Aam Aadmi Party won 67 out of the 70 seats in Delhi, securing Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Ministerial Office again.

Both BJP and INC have pitched first- time candidates against Kejriwal in these elections.

Feature Image Credits: Outlook

Satviki Sanjay

[email protected]

With the Delhi Assembly Elections today, we take a look at elections from an economic point of view, focusing on the money spent by candidates on political campaigning.

“For fifty years, we have been trained to believe that elections are a matter of life and death,” sternly opined Asaduddin Owaisi, a veteran Lok Sabha Legislator, in an informal interview with ScoopWhoop Unscripted, a month before the National Elections last year.

Though Mr Owaisi might have taken a few hyperbolic liberties while making this particular statement, one cannot deny the fact that elections are extremely significant moments in time in the history of any democracy, impacting the Nationwide dynamic and Government policies for the next few years, as well as fulfilling the political aspirations of successful candidates, and collapsing those of unsuccessful ones.

Every election sees the birth of a future leader or the rise of an existing one. Once in a while, more so in recent years, it also sees the fall of a stalwart. With such a prominent amount of reputation and power at stake, candidates standing in elections leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the majority of voters press their symbol on the ballot, spending enormous amounts of time and funds on election campaigning.

India’s Lok Sabha Elections in 2019 were deemed to be one of the world’s most expensive elections with an estimate of over INR 50,000 crores spent on electoral campaigning by parties and candidates across the Country. According to a study by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS), India’s election expenditure has risen six times since 1998, with the majority of the amount being spent on publicity campaigns. Costs include money spent on roadshows, billboard advertisements, television advertisements, social media campaigns, constituency tours, rallies, and music videos to name a few.

In fact, in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections, the AAP Government introduced numerous freebies in the form of subsidies in electricity charges, free bus rides for women and removal of development fees for new water connections. The opposition leaders in the State questioned the economic viability of these recent freebies.

Besides these costs, parties also resort to illegitimate means of attracting votes, with reports of candidates distributing cash, clothes, land, smartphones and sometimes even alcohol to voters. The CMS study reports that around INR 15,000 crores in cash were distributed among voters in the 2019 National Elections.

This leads us to one question. Is all the money worth it?

It is no rocket science that, what matters is the appeal and reputation of the candidate, not the amount of money spent by the candidate and that on an average, a candidate with a favourable image shall garner a significant amount of votes regardless of the money spent by him/her.

The answer to this question exists in contrast. While the kindness of the world would have us believe that money does not matter, yet experience says otherwise.

Out of the humongous INR 50,000 crores spent in the Lok Sabha Elections last year, almost half of the costs were incurred by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who won by a comprehensive margin. But would a less expensive campaign have given them a less favourable result? We shall not know as long as there is not a detailed analysis of Indian elections and voting practices. But what we know is that as long as the voters of this country do not fall prey to political gimmicks and publicity campaigns, and instead decide to press a particular symbol on a ballot based on a thorough review of the candidate’s performance in the last five years, the essence of democracy and integrity shall remain intact.

Delhi Assembly Elections 2020, will be a test of heavy campaigning versus ideology. It will also answer many questions regarding the future discourse of Delhi and the political discourse of the Country. The current Chief Minister (CM), Arvind Kejriwal, won a ravishing majority in the past elections despite heavy campaigning by BJP. However, a new wave of social media campaigning, tremendous on- ground marketing had engulfed the Lok Sabha Elections. This wave might drown the Delhi Elections as well.

Feature Image Credits: The Statesman

Araba Kongbam

[email protected]

On 17th January 2020, Miranda House hosted India Today’s Campus Face-off, which took a controversial turn after some students started protesting.

On 17th January 2020, India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai and Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap came to Miranda House for an edition of their show Campus Face-off. Campus Face-off is a special program where the anchors invite speakers from major parties, who debate and are questioned by the student audience. In Miranda House, they invited representatives from the three major parties of Delhi- Charu Pragya,  Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Radhika Khera, Indian National Congress (INC) and Atishi Marlena, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The anchors, Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai and Ms. Anjana Om Kashyap, conducted an informal session for 30 minutes before the taping, while waiting for the representatives of the parties to arrive. The anchors were asked questions on the current political scenario. When asked about the pressure on media, Ms. Kashyap replied, “Everybody’s perception of how news is being presented is different. We’ve become a very politically polarized country right now.” Rajdeep Sardesai also used this time to promote his new book How Modi Won India in 2019.

While the debate was to be on the issue of “Women Safety, Judgement on Nirbhaya Case, and other issues” in the face of upcoming elections, the panelists also discussed various other issues too, such as Kashmir, the violence in student campuses, economy and unemployment, and the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act-National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Mid-taping, a group of students stood up in the top-left corner of the room, and started silently protesting by holding up posters questioning police brutality, CAA-NRC, internet shutdowns, state of Kashmir, and such ongoing issues. The protestors, who were silent initially, started chanting, “Shame, Shame, Shame” on a comment made by the BJP representative denying the existence of the NRC. When the protestors began sloganeering, Mr. Sardesai asked them to come to the podium, and express themselves. The students expressed their discomfort at the suggestion saying that they stood as a collective, and asking one of them to represent them all would make that representative vulnerable to being targeted.

The protestors then moved to the centre of the room, near the podium, and began sloganeering again. A Kashmiri student then took to the podium and addressed the crowd in a very emotionally charged speech. “Do you know what is AFSPA? What about it’s victims? We are raped. Understand this…  I am not against them (pointing to the panelists). I am against you all (pointing to the crowd). Shame on you… Fuck you. Fuck you sir. Fuck you three also.”

At this, Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai asked them to be removed from the taping, “Madam, you are allowed to speak your views, but you cannot hijack the program.” The Congress representative, then, came and stood with the protesting students.

“The face-off that took place yesterday at the Campus darkened the face of any form of dissent, dialogue, and debate that Miranda has known in the history of its existence. Yes, the anchors allowed questions, but what they also did was make the entire engagement futile…  In the midst of it all, what actually suffered a setback was the culture of radical politics that Miranda prides itself on. The complacency, privilege and comfortable applause of the audiences stood out. The very audience that shamed and policed the tones of the voices of dissent in Miranda, never once questioned the nature of the ongoing debate and their lack of discussion on issues of the marginalized communities. The ones that gathered spine enough to register their protest on a platform as major as this have been let down. The culture of Miranda hangs its head in shame and silence. To begin with, it never was inclusive and ‘woke’ enough to accommodate the marginalized,” said a statement released by the Instagram handle, @mh_studentscollective.


View this post on Instagram

What went wrong when India Today came to campus: A trajectory of events.

A post shared by Non-Starbucks kids of MH (@mh_studentscollective) on

Anshula, a student present at the taping, said “ Rajdeep Sir, according to me, handled it professionally and asked them to protest silently if they want to. He asked them not to hijack the mic, saying there were other people also waiting to raise their concerns. I, too, support the cause, but feel like they could have used the platform better. They raised valid concerns and questions which are important to all of us, but using foul language invalidates the cause.”

The taping went on for more than two hours and ended around six in the evening.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Satviki Sanjay

[email protected]

No candidate supported by the Indian National Congress is contesting elections this time for the post of Delhi University Teachers’ Association’s President.

For the upcoming Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA) Elections for the year 2019-2021, no candidate supported by the Indian National Congress is standing up for the post of President. Senior Congress leader, Kiran Walia said that the party didn’t want to divide secular forces and so chose to keep away from the DUTA polls.

Mr. Ashwini Shankar, the Chairperson of Indian National Teachers’ Congress (INTEC), the official Congress teachers group at the University of Delhi also commented on the issue. He said, “With the country in such turmoil, we wanted to put our best foot forward. Academics for Action and Development support our ideology and so this time we have decided to join our forces and support their candidate, Aditya Narayan Misra. He is a strong candidate and we have faith in him.”

The INTEC has, however, put up three candidates for the 15-member Executive Council. Walia, with full confidence said, “We have fielded three EC candidates and all three are likely to win.” These candidates are Vivek Chaudhary, sitting secretary in DUTA, Udayvir, a teacher of Electronics at Acharya Narendra Dev College, and Pradeep Kumar, History teacher at Zakir Husain College. She said that she does not believe that the ideology of the Congress party has lost its relevance in the University campus as a result of the recent Lok Sabha and State Elections.

Rasal Singh, member of the Academic Council, however, believes that the result of the DUTA Elections will reflect on the upcoming Assembly Elections. “The Modi factor will impact this election too and the outcome will impact the Assembly elections as the DUTA election reflects the mood of the intellectuals.”

The DUTA Elections 2019-2021 are going to be held on 29th August 2019, and the votes will be counted on the same day.

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Wire

Juhi Bhargava

[email protected]

NSUI’s offer to bear expenses, expressed in a press release made by NSUI on 19th June, was made on the occasion of the birthday of Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

The student wing of the Congress, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), has decided on a move to pay the first-year fees of the children of late soldiers and farmers who are taking admission in the University of Delhi. The offer, expressed in a press release made by NSUI on 19th June, was made on the birth anniversary of Congress President, Rahul Gandhi.

“NSUI has made a plan to take an important step to serve the families of the Army on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Congress President Rahul Gandhi Ji. NSUI wants to help and provide services to the children of the family of martyred army, security force [sic]. For this, NSUI wants to pay one year fee for the children of martyrs who are going to take admission in Delhi University this year,” the press release stated.

Calling out the “unfortunate and painful” manner in which the army had been “politicized” by “all the parties” in the “past few days,” the press release said that the NSUI was “standing in every way with the families of those soldiers.”

The press release further said, “The National Student’s Union of India [sic] is also standing with the families of the farmers, who had to commit suicide due to non-payment of loans to the banks. NSUI also wants to pay fees of the children of those farmers.”

The process for the same requires students to register on the email [email protected], following which the National Committee of the NSUI will verify the students’ details.

NSUI National President Neeraj Kundan was quoted by ANI as saying that the party will reimburse the students’ fee in case they had already submitted it to the University, while also adding that the programme “reverberated” Rahul Gandhi’s thinking.

When asked about whether the decision was taken in view of the student polls, Kundan was quoted as saying that the organisation wanted to forward it’s leader, Rahul Gandhi’s ideas instead of just cutting a cake on the occasion of his birthday.

DU Beat tried contacting Saimon Farooqui, the National Secretary of NSUI for a comment, but he was not immediately available.

In our view, while no political move can be separated from the idea of seeking votes or at least, acquiring votes as a byproduct of even a desirable move, political parties often act in subtle ways to expand their reach over the masses. While it is not clear what kind of information will be sought by the NSUI for the programme in question here, a reasonable expectation would be that information such as mobile numbers and other contact details will not be used by the party to reach out to the registrants – such that it does not become a political tool. But voting for a party as per one’s own judgement is, of course, a right available to all.

Feature Image Credits: ANI

Prateek Pankaj

[email protected]

On 11th March, the results of the state assemblies in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur were declared. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be forming a government in 4 out 5 states, as they celebrated a massive ride to victory in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand.

The BJP rode a Modi super-wave to a massive victory in Uttar Pradesh, winning 312 of the state’s 403 seats, whereas its allies have won 13 seats for a grand total of 325. The Samajwadi Party and Indian National Congress’ great loss was a shock to the whole nation as the Samajwadi Party, under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav maintained a strong foothold over the masses in UP. Most people have remarked that the UP elections is an indication towards the death of electoral politics in the state, however it may also be seen as a resurgence wherein the electorate has finally moved away from casteist party politics.

In Manipur, amid the BJP claiming support of 32 MLAs in the 60-member Manipur Assembly, outgoing Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam on Sunday said: the Congress, being the single largest party, must be allowed first to form the government. Flanked by NPP and LJP leaders and their winning candidates, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav told a press conference in Imphal, “We have been able to come to an understanding with the NPP and the Lok Janshakti Party in our bid to form the government in Manipur.”

The Congress has its big win in Punjab, as they won 77 of 117 seats. This win is a breath of fresh air for Congress which has been coping with a drop in their credibility, as they have performed rather poorly in other state elections.

The Goa election results that were declared threw up a hung assembly in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning 13 seats and the Congress 17 in the 40-member assembly. The BJP however pulled off a coup by enlisting the support of the Goa Forward Party (GFP), Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and two Independents, to reach the figure of 21 in the 40-member house. A government led by Manohar Parrikar, former Defense Minister, is now leading Goa.

Featured image Credits: NDTV

Joyee Bhattacharya

([email protected])

 

The inaugural ceremony of Scoop- 2014, the annual fest of DCAC’s Journalism Department was graced up by the presence of ex-Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and senior journalist M.J. Akbar. The distinguished personalities were on campus to be a part of the panel discussion ‘Heads Up’ about Lok sabha elections 2014. The event that lasted for an hour saw the three time Delhi CM answer the questions asked by fellow guest as well as the audience, and simultaneously taking a dig at the Kejriwal government, and at times, even at the UPA – II.

On being questioned about the blow Congress faced on the Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections 2013, she attributed it to the eventual desire of people to usher change for sake of the change. “There was a sense of fatigue in minds of Delhites. People were misled by tall promises, which we couldn’t counter due to loss of public faith and several internal party reasons.” said, Ms. Dikshit. Replying to this, Mr. Akbar commented that democracy is not merely the right to vote, but right to change government, and if public doesn’t do it for long, it forgets how to. He also suggested to not to look in large of the crowd, but small of the eye.” A government survives till the eyes of public repose faith in them, when those eyes go blank, cold and questioning, the good days are over, even Jawaharlal Nehru didn’t survive the elections fourth time”, he added.

1743669_708962599123865_1978514329_n

On being questioned about corruption charges against her government, she snubbed all the allegations on the pretext of clean chits granted to her by concerned investigating committees. Also, she stressed more on the corruption of idea, than money, which has supposedly become the new disease political system ails with, where in the public was induced by the bait of free water, pakka houses and guaranteed jobs.

Answering back on the shelved Janlokpal bill, and weak governance at centre, she said held the Central government complacent, and indecisive and guilty for not articulating what it wanted. According to her, “The need of the hour is a stable and capable government that creates a congenial atmosphere to hold debates to inject fresh ideas in system and push pending bills forward.”

Along with discussions, mostly political, the event also had several light moments. M.J. Akbar underlined importance of majority governments against coalitions comparing the iconic characters of Ramayana, where in the hero had one face, and the villain was ten faced. On being interrogated on tax payer’s money spent on advertisements , Ms. Dikshit alleged all parties including BJP to be doing the same, “…maybe you like Mr.Modi’s face more than mine” she jokingly added.

1662557_708963165790475_1095924377_n

The Journalism department is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The event also marked the launch of their department news paper – ‘The Critique’ by the chief guests. The discussion was a cue to the two-day fest in the college, holding numerous events like quiz, football bidding and ad mad.

Click here for our liveblog from the session this morning.

Image Credit: Sachin Kumar, DCAC

Make it more commercial, Chetan!

So, it wasn’t a myth. There does exist among us a human being blessed enough to find Chetan Bhagat’s literary efforts intellectually stimulating. In fact, Mr Salman Khan is so concerned with the subtlety of Chetan’s script for his new movie that he wants it redone. Not commercial enough, grumbles the superstar. Perhaps Bhagat, being the engineer that he is, put too much physics into Salman’s shirtless scenes. The new script will thus chronicle, without consorting to the laws of physics, Salman’s 1001 shirtless adventures interspersed with item numbers from Salman’s 6th, 35th and 50th girlfriends.

Dangerous philanthropy 

In a move smacking of undeniable respect and incredible imbecility, Rakhi Sawant has offered to serve Sanjay Dutt’s prison term for him. Knock knock Miss Sawant, Sanjay Dutt has not been voted out of Bigg Boss or some such reality show that you can make a tear inducing sacrifice to drive up the TRP. He is going to a real jail, bonehead!

Meanwhile, India TV have apparently decided to discontinue all operations should Rakhi Sawant’s proposed move go through. Reports claim that 30% and 40% of India TV’s gross revenue came from shows featuring aliens and Rakhi Sawant respectively.

Congress out vote shopping

Vote buying is not a path-breaking concept. Telecasting a video of you doing it on national television definitely is. We are talking about the advert lauding the government’s Cash Transfer Scheme which is already making waves.

The video stars this old man who has obviously suffered a lot. He seems more likely to skewer Manmohan Singh alive than to vote for his party. He approaches the desk and obtains the cash. A hint of a smile appears on his face. He seems to be thinking, ‘This Manmohan is not such a bad lad now, is he?’ If you try hard enough, you can even convince him that Mr Singh posses a full functional spine. Vote bought! Next.

Pope vs Durex!

Yes Mr Pope, we all know you are not down with condoms. Fair enough. But could you please avoid flying all the way down to Africa, the continent most ravaged by AIDS, and preaching against it? Kindly, converse with your imaginary friend and obtain due permissions. If He is as knowledgeable as you claim, I am sure He would understand.

Picture Credits: www.tamilwire.com

Harsh Vardhan

[email protected]