When journalists extended a helping hand to preserve history

Photographs of Russian revolutionaries and communist memorabilia covered with layers of dust adorn the walls of the conference hall in CPI headquarters

Extending a helping hand

The Delhi office of the Communist Party of India (CPI) — one of the first national parties to move out of the Lutyens area — remains the most spacious and unpretentious. 

Photographs of Russian revolutionaries and communist memorabilia covered with layers of dust adorn the walls of its conference hall. On Tuesday, after a press conference addressed by CPI chief S Sudhakar Reddy, some journalists offered to help with the clean-up of the office and preservation of the memorabilia since some of it was several decades old and had tremendous historical value. The party headquarters also serves simple but delicious home-cooked food, which remains a draw for party cadres.

‘Hero’ cycle 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh organised a cycling event on the occasion of Environment Day. Former state chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not miss the opportunity to make a political pitch. He tweeted, at last the state government had admitted that the ‘cycle’ played a key role in saving the environment. He added that even the residents of state had realised it is only the ‘cycle’ that would be able to salvage today’s polluted political environment. The ‘cycle’ happens to be the election symbol of Yadav’s party, which lost to the BJP in last assembly elections.

Name calling over name change

The central government’s approval to the renaming of Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction has led to a mini war of words on Twitter. The first to tweet were Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, “If you vote for the BJP, then the names of cities and stations will change. If you vote for AAP, the future of your children will change.” In an earlier tweet, his deputy Manish Sisodia said the Yogi Adityanath government would do well to focus on improving the state of government schools and colleges in the state. Lawyer and founder of Swaraj Abhiyan, Prashant Bhushan, tweeted, “...Amidst all the heavy work done to provide oxygen to children at Gorakhpur Hospital, beating up people for cows and battering women through Romeo squads, Yogi still got time to change the name of Mughalsarai Junction to Pandit Deen Dayal Junction.”