Delhi Confidential: Error Today, Gone Tomorrow

Last week in this column an item was published about how a golden-lettered plaque at the office of Department of Legal Affairs on the 4th floor of Shastri Bhawan misspelt “Panch Pran (Five Pledges)” as “Panch Praan (Five Lives)” in Hindi. These five pledges were announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence speech on August 15, 2022, aimed at making India developed by 2047. On Thursday, The Indian Express found that “Pran” was spelt correctly on the plaque.

Tamil Outreach

Even as the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government faces off with the Centre over the introduction of the three-language formula in schools, viewing it as a veiled attempt to push Hindi, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been seen addressing events in Tamil over the last two weeks. On December 30, at the valedictory event of Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Rameshwaram, Pradhan read out a speech in Tamil. On Tuesday, speaking at the 56th anniversary of Thuglak magazine in Chennai, Pradhan again addressed the audience in Tamil. This is being seen as an attempt by the minister to smooth over differences and drive home his point that multilingualism is not a disadvantage.

Feast Fight

After six Bihar Congress MLAs didn’t show up for Makar Sankranti ‘Dahi-Chura’ feast at the party office in Patna on Monday, giving rise to speculation of them being in touch with NDA leaders, the “rebels” are now planning a similar get-together themselves. The feast is being organised on Friday at the Patna residence of former MLA Chhatrapati Yadav. All state Congress leaders, including sitting MLAs and state unit president Rajesh Kumar, who is supposedly behind the action against the “dissidents” over alleged anti-party activities during the recent Assembly elections, have been invited.