Delhi Confidential: Not At Home

Last year, too, Kharge and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had missed the Independence Day function at Red Fort.

Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge

Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge skipped the official Independence Day function at the Red Fort and subsequently gave President Droupadi Murmu’s At Home event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a miss. Those close to Kharge say he was not feeling well. Last year, too, Kharge and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had missed the Independence Day function at Red Fort. Both were then down with Covid-19 at the time.

Tryst With Selfie

Late Monday night, the I&B Ministry set up a hundred Independence Day selfie booths across the country, along with cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government picked 12 themes to showcase 12 of its flagships schemes — clean India, space power and so forth — at these selfie booths, and people could pick a theme and get their pictures clicked alongside. Delhi-NCR had eight such booths at locations including Kartavya Path, Connaught Place and four Metro stations. By the end of the day, crowds of people converged at these booths to take photographs, with the booth at Nizamuddin railway station even seeing tourists from abroad.

Effecting A Change

Two months after a resolution was passed by the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library Society to rename the institution as Pradhan Mantri Museum and Library (PMML) Society, the change was officially effected on August 14. At a special meeting in June, presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is vice-president of the Society, it was decided to drop Jawaharlal Nehru’s name, a move that has raised the ire of the Opposition, which has called it a petty act.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa during their call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday. (Image source: X@eucopresident)

European Union negotiators coming to Delhi this week to step up FTA talks

Business22 min ago

EU's top negotiators will visit India to discuss the India-EU FTA, which has gained urgency due to the US tariff war. India will push for concessions on CBAM. Progress has been made in 11 chapters, including digital trade, with the aim to conclude the deal by the end of the year. The EU is also negotiating with other countries.

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