In step with times
Akhilesh Yadav, the newly-appointed state president of the Samajwadi Party, may have much to learn from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, but Yadav junior’s love for the environment has certainly impressed his father. So much so that Yadav senior has now started mentioning environmental issues often in his speeches. Last week, while criticising Mayawati’s memorials, he expressed serious concern over the threat to the environment from these massive stone structures. “Paryavaran ko khatra paida ho gaya hai,” he said. Earlier, only Akhilesh, who had studied environment science in Australia, used to speak of the threat to the environment due to the dust produced by the large-scale cutting and grinding of stones at the memorials. “Netaji wants to keep up with the times and his son is his guide,” said a source in the SP.

Schooled in politics
A few days ago, several Christians joined the Congress. Nothing unusual, except that the event was held in the auditorium of the Christ Church School in Hazratganj area, and among those who joined the Congress was school principal Rakesh Chatri. They had gathered under the banner of UP Masih Sangh. The principal saw nothing wrong in a political event taking place in an educational institution. “Vacations are going on right now. Otherwise, we would never have organised such a function here,” he explained. The principal may be ignorant, but one expects somebody like Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was present on the occasion, to know better.

Sounds familiar
Some passages in a booklet distributed to BSP leaders at a meeting on Saturday make interesting reading. After stating that the BSP had a missionary goal of establishing a “casteless equalitarian social order”, the booklet says, “the struggle waged by sants, gurus and great men born in the Bahujan Samaj, particularly Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Narayana Guru, Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Manyavar Shri Kanshi Ramji and later Bahen Kumari Mayawatiji, to attain this goal is very praiseworthy and unforgettable”. The booklet is a BSP publication, whose president is none other than Mayawati. But a little self praise is nothing for somebody who has installed her own statues all over Lucknow.

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