Glasshouse

LOYALTY BONUS

Hard work does pay. In choosing Congress candidates for the June 18 Rajya Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge ensured loyalists get their due. So, long-time Rahul associate, Praveen Chakravarty (head of the data wing) has been fielded from Tamil Nadu. An early convert to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s cause, he benefited after Vijay’s TVK gave up its lone RS seat for the Congress. AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan (from Karnataka) was rewarded for his work in Telangana and Kerala, where the party is back in power, while media cell head Pawan Khera (Rajasthan) got the thumbs up for his attacks on Rahul’s bete noire, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. Meenakshi Natarajan got the nod from MP, but her nomination was rejected. Kharge has backed his men too: communication in-charge Pranav Jha will contest from Jharkhand, and Neeraj Dangi for a second term from Rajasthan.

NEW ROACH APPROACH | COURT CORRECTION

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant seems to have made a careful course correction. On May 15, his “cockroaches” remark unleashed a storm—the comment was read by many as an attack on India’s youth, though the CJI clarified the next day that he was referring only to those entering the lawyer profession with dubious qualifications. That note of moderation continued through June 6 when, in an address to the Oxford Union, the CJI praised young lawyers and judicial officers as the force driving the judiciary’s shift to technology. He said their comfort with digital courts, e-filing and AI-assisted research had made the system stronger and more efficient. He did add a caveat, though: technology must assist judges, not replace them. “The conscience, discretion and ethical reasoning of a judge cannot be coded into an algorithm,” he warned.

ONCE UPON A TAP

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath turned 54 on June 5, and the event was marked with 54 kilos of laddoos, bulldozer-shaped cakes, and much celebrations. Yogi also used the occasion to highlight what his government has done, especially under the Har Ghar Nal Yojana, providing tap water connections to all. In the same breath, however, he also spoke of ‘toti chori’ (stealing of taps), reviving an old BJP taunt against Opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav. In 2018, after the Samajwadi Party chief had vacated the official CM’s residence, allegations had been made about missing taps. Keen to plug that dripping rumour, Akhilesh took to X, sharing Yogi’s clip, and calling him ‘CM, that is, Corrupt Mouth’.

STATE BANK OF TDP

A ghat on the banks of the Godavari near Rajahmundry, allegedly named after Nara Lokesh’s 11-year-old son Devaansh, has left the Telugu Desam scion and Andhra Pradesh IT minister embarrassed. A video of the ‘Devaansh Ghat’ went viral after the district administration said it was remodelling it at a cost of Rs 1 crore ahead of next year’s Godavari Pushkarams, the once-in-12-years holy bathing festival. Lokesh has called any connection with his son “ridiculous”, but netizens have pointed to the July 2015 date on the ghat’s arch to argue that it was built during the TDP’s earlier regime.

KNOW YOUR BIHAR

Bihar has often seen politicians on yatras, but CM Samrat Choudhary has outsourced the tradition. Rather than doing a state tour himself, he has instructed his babus to do the travelling. Under the Bihar Darshan initiative, all officials have been directed to visit tourist destinations with their families and submit photos and reports of their experiences. Samrat’s message seems clear: if Bihar is worth governing, it is worth seeing. Guess he wants the babus to discover first-hand the wonders of ‘Blissful Bihar’.

—with Avaneesh Mishra, Prasad Nichenametla and Amitabh Srivastava