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Journalism of Courage
A study tour to the Northeast for members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture was cancelled at the last minute due to a difference of opinion between the committee and the Rajya Sabha Secretariat over who will be the official accompanying them. The panel, headed by YSRCP leader V Vijayasai Reddy, was expected to visit Guwahati, Gangtok and Tawang from April 15 to 19. All arrangements had been made for the 19-members committee but a dispute then arose. While the committee insisted that a senior official — at the level of Joint Secretary or Director — should be present to ensure the tour goes off smoothly, the Secretariat maintained that an Additional Director-level officer would accompany them because under a new norm every official should get a chance to travel with committees. The tour was cancelled subsequently. While some MPs had reached Delhi before the scheduled date of travel, one senior BJP MP had even reached Gangtok, and had to return. All members of the panel are learnt to backed their chairman’s stand that a senior official should accompany them.
No Stone Unturned
That the Congress and the Gandhi siblings are putting all their might to upstage the BJP in Karnataka is now clear. But in a surprise move, even UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who has not campaigned in elections for a long time, will also join the electioneering by addressing a public meeting in Hubballi on May 6. Sonia had addressed only one rally — that, too, in virtual mode — even in Uttar Pradesh elections last year. She had addressed one public meeting in Karnataka in the 2018 elections as well — and even then, her rally had come after a two-year break.
Recalling A Friend
It may be two days late, but the Japanese embassy has made sure it records its appreciation of the 100th episode of PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme. On Wednesday, the embassy recalled a message by late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in the preface to the book ‘Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio’, remembering the 89th episode, where Modi lauded India-Japan cultural ties while citing Japanese artists who stage the Mahabharat and the Ramayan in Asian countries. Replying to the tweet thread, the Prime Minister posted: “Thank you for the kind words and for also remembering my friend, late Shinzo Abe.”
