Delhi Underground

Mars echo in House
The day Mangalyaan successfully entered the Mars orbit, Mira Agarwal, Leader of the House in North Municipal Corporation, read a motion, congratulating the country and “especially the Prime Minister for laying the foundation for future development of the country”. She was still speaking when Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Goel got up from his chair to announce that it was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who laid the foundation for the Mars project the BJP was now reaping the benefits of. He said the motion won’t be passed till it also included Singh’s name, which was eventually done by the chairman.

Ramdev hails Modi
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving his speech at the United Nations, Baba Ramdev sent out a text congratulating him, specifically hailing Modi’s call to observe International Yoga Day. Ramdev concluded, “It will make the world healthy & peaceful.”

Live coverage
Delhi BJP invited people to join them watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi live from Madison Square in Luv Kush Ramlila at Red Fort. It may have been out of sheer excitement that the BJP attempted to show live coverage of the PM’s address, but leaders believe it will help the party in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Court allows travel
A Bollywood producer, who is an accused in a high-profile corruption case, was this week allowed by a special court to go abroad to promote Shah Rukh Khan’s Diwali release Happy New Year. The accused said he is the ‘creative’ producer of the movie and his presence is required during the promotional tour abroad. However, the prosecuting agency argued that his exact role as the ‘creative’ producer was not clear and that stringent conditions should be imposed on his travel. The judge, however, said, “Considering the fact that the accused submits that it is a question of his livelihood and his presence is necessary in foreign countries for promotion of the film and that he was permitted to travel abroad in trial of the scheduled offences also, I allow the application.”

Unruly visitors
Visitors to Delhi zoo continue to be unruly despite the tragic death of a man, who was killed by a white tiger after he fell inside its enclosure last week. “We have had to provide additional guards to protect the tiger,” a zoo official said. Security guards said they can single out drunk visitors or other such people and stop them from entering the zoo, but could do little if visitors disregard safety norms governing animal enclosures. The only way, according to them, to enable visitors from viewing the animals at the zoo safely was by raising the height of the enclosure boundary. The wall is high enough to prevent animals in the enclosures from jumping out, but is too low to keep people from jumping or falling inside, they said.