Matter of discipline

During a rally in Agra on Thursday, RLD chief and union minister Ajit Singh was seen losing his cool more than once. When Singh came to the dais to speak, the huge group of people standing behind him on the stage created some commotion, which irked Singh who immediately scolded them and asked them to be quiet. The group of people, however, continued to jostle and make noise, prompting Singh to reprimand them several times. Finally, he gave the example of his father and former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh and said when he stared at someone on stage that person would get so scared that he would jump off the stage. This finally forced the people on stage to become quiet.
MORE POWERS
At the fag end of the present term of the government, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has widened the scope of work and responsibility of his deputy ministers, the two ministers of state, Adhir Chowdhury and K Suryaprakash Reddy. Now, both will be able to oversee approval of work tenders exceeding Rs 175 crore and up to 250 crore. This limit was earlier capped at Rs 175 crore. While Chowdhury is a regular at the ministry, officials are stumped at the increase in the responsibility of Reddy, who has been giving Rail Bhawan a miss in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

CINE CONNECTION
Several new faces from the entertainment world joined the BJP on Friday, upping its glamour quotient. Interestingly though, four of them — music director Bappi Lahiri, actress Ashima Sharma, writer Sachindra Sharma and actor Prashant Narayan — are associated with a 2013 movie called ‘Mumbai Can Dance Saala’. Incidentally, the Facebook page of ‘Ashima Films’, the banner under which the movie was made, says BJP president Rajnath Singh attended the film’s muhurat and launched the movie in 2013.

HIJAB DAY
Years into the observation of a World Hijab Day on February 1, when non-Muslim women are urged to adopt the cover for a day to know what it is like to be in Muslim women’s shoes, there are now efforts by some organisations to observe it in India too. Originally a western concept started by New York resident Nazma Khan, to dispel notions that hijab is a sign of bondage, a Delhi-based NGO Al Iman Academy issued an invite on Friday to Indian women to “experience” hijab for a day.