Yeddyurappa's 75th birthday: For this BJP leader age is just a number

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka leader B S Yeddyurappa celebrated his birthday on Tuesday. The day was celebrated as a “farmers’ meet”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was by his side at Davanagere in central Karnataka for the occasion. 

By and large, his party colleagues refrained from mentioning his age. Some senior party members advised colleagues not to mention his age even in their media advertisements, tweets and Facebook posts. 

Only Union Parliamentary Affairs, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar mentioned his age (75) in a tweet. The Prime Minister officially declared that Yeddyurappa will be chief minister if the BJP is voted to power in the state—a break from rule since BJP leaders are barred from holding any ministerial post once they turn 75.

Painting a new image

The Jawahar Bhavan on Rajendra Prasad Road in New Delhi houses the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. The foundation is run by the Nehru-Gandhi family and involves itself in social work. Jawahar Bhavan is also home to several paintings, including a massive M F Hussain. Over the years, scant attention has been paid to the upkeep of these paintings. Recently, Congress communications department chief Randeep Singh Surjewala (pictured), an aesthete himself, noticed that the paintings needed some restoration and persuaded some in his wide circle of friends and acquaintances to get down to saving the paintings, particularly the two-story tall Hussain. “The ‘new’ Congress under our new president Rahul Gandhi cannot do without its old canvas, but that requires some burnishing,” quipped a Congress leader.

All for a song

A day after the faux pas in translation during state governor C Vidyasagar Rao’s address to Maharashtra Legislature, the assembly on Tuesday saw a similar glitch when the last stanza of “Marathi Abhimaan Geet” wasn’t played, evoking the opposition’s ire. 
 

The Maharashtra government celebrates “Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din” on February 27 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of late poet V V Shirwadkar, also known as Kusumagraj. The song was played in the Assembly as part of the “Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din” celebrations. Following the technical glitch, a performer present at the venue rushed to the microphone and completed the song.