Delhi Confidential: Answer Hour

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri got a warning from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday. The minister, while replying to questions, told a few members that he would personally take up the matter with them. When AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi complained that Aurangabad didn’t have a single house under PMAY, Puri said he was not reading the statistics right. “I will help you to read the statistics,” he said. Later, when BJP’s Gopal Shetty raised an issue about online permissions for buildings, Puri said the MP was raising a local issue, which he would meet and explain.  This prompted Birla to ask, “If you are going to sit with every MP to give them their answers, what should the members ask in Question Hour? You give him his reply.”

Virtual Harmony

Amid the ongoing acrimony between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over Kalyan Banerjee’s “mimicry” and suspension of Opposition MPs, came a pleasant post from TMC president Mamata Banerjee. “Proud to announce that the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has selected our Serampore Police Station (Chandannagar Police Commissionerate) as one of the best three police stations in the entire country for the year 2023 ,” she posted, adding that Home Minister Amit Shah will hand over the trophy on January 5, 2024. She concluded her post with ‘Jai Bangla’.

AI Challenge

Raising the issue of deepfakes, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said even PM Narendra Modi hadn’t been spared by miscreants. He said a deepfake video of the PM doing garba was viewed by lakhs of people on social media. The PM had to refute the video and tell people that he had not participated in any dance for several years, said the MP. The technology, said the BJP leader, could be misused during elections and should be regulated.