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Journalism of Courage
Food Minister Piyush Goyal had expressed unhappiness over the absence of several state Food Ministers, including West Bengal minister Rathin Ghosh, during a meeting organised by his ministry last year. On Wednesday, it was the other way round.
Goyal was supposed to address the inaugural session of the Conference of Food Ministers. Several state Food Ministers, including Ghosh and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Satish Chandra Sharma, who brought a bouquet to welcome Goyal, were present. Goyal, it is learnt, could not attend the session since he was preoccupied with other official assignments. In his absence, his deputy, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey addressed the gathering.
Hanging on to hope: The Congress seems to be fairly confident that Meghalaya will give a fractured verdict. Gearing up for a hung Assembly, the party has rushed former Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy and AICC in-charge Manish Chatrath to Shillong. The party’s calculation is that the ruling NPP will emerge as the single-largest party but will fall short of the halfway mark.
The Congress and the TMC could finish second or third, it believes. The party has also rushed senior leader Mukul Wasnik to Tripura, where the Congress-Left combine believes it has a chance to form the government despite some exit polls predicting a BJP sweep.
Match made naturally: BITS Pilani signed an agreement with Melbourne-based RMIT University on Wednesday to start an academy with a dual-degree model. At the launch event, Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell AO, invoked his Netflix watchlist to drive home a point. He said unlike ‘Indian Matchmaking’, where Seema Taparia played the matchmaker, India and Australia are natural partners, and do not need any such intervention.
Another instance of bonhomie was on display, with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and his Australian counterpart, Jason Clare, riding to public events in the same vehicle.
