Delhi Confidential: Home & House

With his younger son’s wedding scheduled this month, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been frequently traveling between Delhi and Bhopal. On Thursday, he was in Bhopal for the pre-wedding ‘Lagna’ ceremony and ‘Satyanarayana Puja’ at his residence. Despite his engagements, Chouhan, it is learnt, managed to conduct two separate videoconferences to receive briefings on parliamentary questions, as he is expected to reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Letter And Spirit

The government’s plan to set up a memorial for late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal is awaiting the go-ahead of his family, it is learnt. After Singh passed away in December last year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs informed his family about the memorial plan in a letter sent in January. A similar letter was sent to former President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter, Sharmistha Mukherjee, informing her of the government’s decision to set up a memorial for the former Congress stalwart, who died in 2020, at Rashtriya Smriti. While Sharmistha gave her consent for the memorial, government sources say, Singh’s family is yet to respond to the letter.

To The Fullest

During his speech in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, 91, reflected on his journey as a parliamentarian, which began 33 years ago. He said one more year is left in his current term and added that he did not know whether he would complete his full term. This prompted Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to interject and say that the whole House was with him and that he will not only complete the full term but also be able to bless them. The Chairman wished Deve Gowda a long life.