Delhi Confidential: Eager to please

Keen to be in sync with the Prime Minister, Union ministers do not leave any opportunity to invoke the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. On Monday, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda released a book Art and Railways, a compilation of paintings and cartoons depicting Railways as a subject of art. At the event, Gowda said that clean India also meant beautiful India. Lest the audience miss his point, he explained that murals and paintings on stations added to the beautification of the premises and its surroundings and should be seen as part of the clean India initiative. The function ended with a gaffe, with director of National Rail Museum calling the Minister Sadananda ‘Deve’ Gowda, but everyone pretended not to have noticed.

A STEP AHEAD
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad seemed to be in good mood as he took his appointed seat the other day at the function to launch BJP’s membership drive through new technologies like mobile and social media. Little did he realise that he would become the centre of unwanted attention shortly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his speech, mentioned that while his government’s Digital India programme remained largely on paper, the party had gone two steps ahead and become digital BJP. Prasad is the minister in charge of implementing the Digital India programme.

REEL EFFORT
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has decided to contribute to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in its own way. It plans to get a documentary made on the importance of cleanliness in every religious text and how it is overlooked at many places of worship. The IGNCA hopes to widely disseminate the documentary once it is made in the hope that it will help connect with the masses. The IGNCA is currently in search of a suitable director to make the film.