A Twitter follower has drawn an analogy between the state of the auto industry in India and the fable about the hen that laid golden eggs. The story went something like this: A farmer had a hen that laid golden eggs, but only one a day. The farmer killed the hen in his greed to get all the eggs at one go, but, of course he couldn’t. The Twitter user said the farmer in this case was the Central government, the hen was the auto industry, and the egg was the goods and services tax. According to an estimate, the auto industry accounts for 49 per cent of manufacturing GDP and almost 15 per cent of GST collection.
Revisiting two nation theory
The Deendayal Research Institute (DRI), founded by Nanaji Deshmukh more than 40 years ago, has been hosting an annual lecture under the rubric “Akhand Bharat Parisamvad” for the past 32 years on August 15. This year, former union minister Arif Mohammed Khan will be the lead speaker. Khan, who had quit the Rajiv Gandhi government on the issue of the Muslim Women’s Bill, recently backed the government for bringing in a law to proscribe “triple talaq”. Khan will speak on “Dharmanirpekshta aur Dwi-Rashtravaad”, or secularism and the two-nation theory. Bharatiya Janata Party Vice-President and Indian Council for Cultural Relations chief Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is the second speaker. The DRI has an ideological affinity with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Game, set, match
Nikhil Alva (pictured), who had handled Rahul Gandhi’s social media outreach in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, on Tuesday posted a video clip on his Twitter handle. The clip is from a badminton match in which one side smashes the shuttlecock repeatedly, while the other side manages to retrieve it every time and eventually wins the point. "Never give up," Alva said. Alva's posts came three days after the veterans outmanoeuvred Rahul Gandhi to have his mother Sonia Gandhi return as Congress chief. As people started debating if this was a message from Rahul's team, Alva posted the clip again with a different message. “The BJP grabs all the attention. Smash, smash, smash, smash... drama, drama, drama, drama... The Congress never gives up! Guess who wins in the end”, Alva posted.
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