Delhi Confidential: Tour Tradition

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is scheduled to visit Dera Radha Soami Satsang, Beas, and meet its head Gurinder Singh Dhillon on Friday. He had visited the Dera in October 2018 too, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. His visit ahead of the 2024 general election is being closely watched. Bhagwat is on a three-day visit to Punjab, where he has held marathon meetings with around 20 RSS leaders from the state, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Verse Reply

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday briefly switched to Tamil to counter the charges by the southern states that they have been discriminated against by the Centre in disbursal of resources. During a discussion in Rajya Sabha on the state of economy, Sitharaman was explaining the mechanism of GST and the direct taxes when CPM MP John Brittas intervened to point out that a “huge amount was going to Centre on account of duties and surcharges”. Sitharaman chose to reply with a Tamil verse: “Thadukkula paancha paaila paaiva (If I address one issue, you will jump to another one).” When Brittas said he does not understand Tamil, the minister, in a lighter vein, said: “Unnakku Tamil puriyon (You understand Tamil).”

People’s Constitution

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi on his vision of a Constitution aligned with the will of the people, former President Ramnath Kovind on Thursday drew parallels with the present saying the Constitution resonates with the aspirations of the nation. Referencing the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, Kovind asserted that it aligns with the Constitutional principles. He was speaking at the launch of ‘Naye Bharat ka Samaveda’, a collection highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches pertaining to the Constitution. The book, launched by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, comprises 32 speeches by the PM, with the inaugural speech dating back to January 24, 2010, marking the Constitution’s 60th anniversary.