Mumbai Underground: Statue first

Ambedkar really wanted: ‘providing facilities for students’, ‘imparting education... to weaker sections’.

mumbai underground, Development Plan 2034, South Mumbai college, Babasaheb Ambedkar, CST, DGIPR,Salman Khan, hit-and-run-case

Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir has started a 10-day summer Mallakhamb camp at Shivaji Park. Participants aged 8 to 80 years will be trained on the pole and the rope at the camp.(Source: Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Memorials and statues taking prominence over a leader’s teachings is nothing new but a South Mumbai college appears to have taken this to another level. At the entrance, stands a gilded bust of Babasaheb Ambedkar atop a wooden pedestal. Unfortunately, the bust hides a list of goals and objectives enlisted by Ambedkar for the college. Those who crane their neck may notice what Ambedkar really wanted: ‘providing facilities for students’, ‘imparting education… to weaker sections’.

‘Take it easy’
The brickbats continue to fly thick and fast over the draft Development Plan (DP) 2034, fuelling discussions over which official’s head may roll for the embarrassment, with all parties uniting to demand that the document be scrapped entirely and the process restarted. The officials from the Development Plan department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are the worst hit and so it’s no wonder that they’ve started requesting journalists to take it easy. Every reporter visiting the department now gets a sheepish request from the officials to slow down with the criticism. An official from the department told one reporter: “How much will you write on the DP? Bas kijiye abhi (Stop it now).”

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Rraw deal
The new Divisional Railway Manager of Central Railway was returning to CST after a visit to Thane railway station, accompanied by Railway Protection Force officials, when the men in uniform boarded the ladies’ compartment and asked the hawkers to alight. By the time the train reached CST, all hawkers had stopped selling their wares in the train. It was only when the DRM got off that one old hawker woman grumbled to commuters, within earshot of the RPF men: “Main to barabaar hafta deti hu, main tumhare saheb ko kyon daroon?” The RPF personnel hurried off after the DRM.

On their toes
Employees in the state government’s Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR) office have been swamped with work ever since the reigns of the state government changed. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis keeps the public relations team on its toes by constantly drafting not just emails with pictures and photographs, but also tweets and Whatsapp messages. “Not just for major events, but we have to do this for almost every meeting that the chief minister has. In comparison, Prithviraj Chavan liked to keep a low profile,” said a DGIPR official. Some bureaucrats may be complaining that the new government’s promised rapid delivery of successes remain to be seen, but the public relations team is certainly working overtime.

Tailpiece
In court, misunderstanding words could lead to awkward situations. Actor Salman Khan’s lawyer was pleading that Khan’s blood samples had been kept at the Bandra police station but not in a refrigerator, which caused fermentation before the sample reached a lab for analysis. However, as soon as he said the samples had been stored in an almirah, all eyes turned to the actor’s sister, Alvira, a regular in the courtroom. Realising the attention on her, Alvira started to explain that she had nothing to do with the samples. The puzzled onlookers in the court finally smiled when the defence clarified, “The samples were kept in an almirah, a cupboard.”

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