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Journalism of Courage
Point to the hand
Looking for an auspicious start to his election campaign, Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan came to file his nomination with the party’s election symbol — lotus — made with mehendi on his hand. As Vardhan posed with his “shagun ki mehendi” for TV channels after filing his nomination papers on Friday, some supporters said in jest, “Sir don’t show your hand (Congress symbol), people will get the wrong idea. Please point to the mehendi.” Vardhan made sure he pointed to the lotus on his hand, every time he showed his shagun to supporters and mediapersons after that.
Kejriwal sends luck
After his party won 28 seats in Delhi Assembly elections, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal wants to pass on his luck to Rohtak Lok Sabha candidate Naveen Jaihind, who is pitted against Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Kejriwal has sent his blue WagonR to Jaihind for campaigning. “Naveen Jaihind did not have a car so Arvind sent his car so that he does not face any problem during campaigning. It might even bring him Arvind’s luck,” an AAP volunteer said.
Salespersons in office
A senior official in the Gurgaon administration was in for a surprise when two young salespersons barged into his office, and began urging him to buy “soothing Sufi music”. The official, under immense workload and visibly hassled already, tried to refuse politely but the salespersons persisted. Upon realising that music would not sell, they tried their luck with encyclopedias and general knowledge books. The official was on the verge of losing his temper, when they decided to leave, thanking him profusely for his time.
No explanation
Sometimes, after a hard-fought case between the public and a government agency, people tend to swarm the government officials present in court for clarification. As several residents of an area under dispute surrounded a senior official with complaints after their case, the lawyer steered the officer away, telling him that he did not need to waste his time. “You have the court orders in hand, you don’t need to bother explaining it to them anymore,” the lawyer said.
What wave?
Of late, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely has been questioning the so-called “Modi wave”. Lovely said if there was such a thing called a Modi wave, why were senior leaders of the party looking for safe seats. “Why is Modi contesting from two seats? Why are Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi upset about not being given their safe seats?” he asked.
Unhelpful desk
A posh helpdesk outside the Delhi Police headquarters, which was constructed last year, lies unused. The helpdesk was meant to take complaints and assist those seeking a meeting senior police officers. Since it was constructed during the tenure of the previous Police Commissioner, police officers are unsure how to utilise the helpdesk. Sources said a helpdesk on the road appears to be unusual when there is a helpdesk inside the main gate and every office at PHQ.
Too cold
At a recent public address in India Islamic Center, AAP candidate from New Delhi, Ashish Khetan, requested the AC to be turned off as he was feeling too cold. Someone in the audience then remarked, “Switch off the AC and switch on the Khe(ai)tan fans now.” To this, Khetan replied, “Now please don’t ask me to wear a monkey cap”, and broke into peals of laughter.
On the backseat
BJP candidates in Delhi have ignored all senior party leaders, barring PM candidate Narendra Modi, while finalising their campaign material. The candidates have projected their pictures along with Modi’s, ignoring their veteran leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Delhi unit chief Harsh Vardhan. One of the candidates said, “The fight is between Modi and the rest, so people should vote for Modi and thus every other leader takes a backseat.”
Democracy
Yogendra Yadav was left speechless for a brief moment as a youth went up to him and shouted, “Narendra Modi zindabad.” The youth continued shouting slogans, insulting both AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. Yadav, however, chose to ignore him. Other AAP supporters pushed the youth away and decided to leave him alone, saying, “India is a democratic country and people can say what they want.”
Worth his weight
The stage at one of the campaign venues for BJP candidate Rao Inderjeet Singh faced the risk of collapsing when party workers crowded the stage and tried to garland him. A party worker rushed to Singh and tried to gift him his weight’s worth of coins. An exasperated Singh then told workers to refrain from such actions, lest they be penalised by the Election Commission.
Photo finish
Even though the AAP candidate for Ghaziabad, Shazia Ilmi, arrived around 1 pm to file her nomination, a series of delays led to her ultimately filing her nomination seconds before the deadline — 3pm. Flustered and angry, Ilmi refused to explain the exact cause of delay. But a source close to her said the person carrying the documents hadn’t turned up on time.
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