Delhi confidential: Polls plus talks

Special screening

Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi will hold a special screening of Akshay Kumar-starrer Pad Man a couple of days before the film’s release next week. The minister’s invitation states that the film’s theme of menstrual hygiene has the potential to initiate conversations and influence mindsets on the issue. Akshay, who was conferred the National Award in 2017, had found an official endorsement of his last film Toilet Ek Prem Katha in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The movie, in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission, was screened for a select audience in Delhi last year.

Family politics

Prince Raj, 28, may have lost his first Assembly election in Bihar in 2015 but he is set to play a significant role in the LJP, an NDA ally. Party chief and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday appointed Prince president of LJP’s students’ wing. Prince is son of party MP from Samastipur Ramchandra Paswan, who is younger brother of Ram Vilas. Prince is fourth member from the family to hold a post in the party organisation. His father is party national vice-president, and Ram Vilas’s son Chirag is MP from Jamui and also chairman of LJP’s parliamentary board.

No taste of tests

The National Testing Service (NTS) will not, after all, conduct two of the most competitive entrance tests in higher education in India. NTS is envisioned to be the largest agency conducting all major entrance examinations in the country. First, the IITs expressed their unwillingness to hand over JEE (Advanced) to NTS. The Centre reluctantly agreed. With the IITs dropping out, it now seems that the chances of NTS conducting CAT are also very bleak. The HRD Ministry, it is learnt, has decided to not broach this topic with either the IITs or the IIMs for the first three years after NTS becomes fully functional.