Delhi Confidential: RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s nuggets from the past

Speaking at an ABVP event on Friday, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale alluded to his name having been accidentally dropped from the list of past ABVP general secretaries. He said it was the right thing to do as he had become one accidentally. As the audience began laughing, Hosabale said, “I thought Sunil ji (former CEC Sunil Arora) has made you laugh so much and if I don’t, you will remember only his speech.” He then narrated an incident where an ABVP worker was in a printing press, getting a book associated with Sangh work published. A man working on the printing machine offered him a drink at midnight, saying, “Take it, you will stay in spirit.” Hosabale said the ABVP worker told the man, “The picture you see on the cover keeps my spirit high.” The cover had Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose and Vivekananda. “This is how ABVP has created history,” Hosabale said.

For a cause: Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday donated Rs 1,000 to the BJP at the party’s central office at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. This was the first time he made a “micro-donation’’ through the party’s NaMo app. In an attempt to inspire people to make similar donations through the app, he said it is the micro-donations that will “strengthen the party”. Incidentally, the minister donated Rs 1,000 donation not for any scheme in his own ministry, but for WCD Ministry’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme.

The guests: Pakistan’s Junior Davis Cup team is currently in India to participate in the final qualifying event being held in New Delhi from April 11 to 16. Pakistan High Commission’s Chargé d’ Affaires Aftab Hasan Khan hosted the team at the High Commission on Friday for an Iftar dinner and interacted with them.