DailyOh! Modi gets Legion of Merit, but who spoiled Suresh Raina and Sussanne Khan’s party

Dragonflies don’t sting, they don’t bite either. What about Mumbai Dragonfly Club? Same. The club doesn’t sting, it doesn’t bite. Violating social distancing norms at the club, however, lets the virus infect club goers. Suresh Raina, Sussanne Khan and Guru Randhawa were reminded of it when the Mumbai Police raided the Mumbai club and arrested them along with many others, a total of 34, including seven staff.

We mention the three, not the others and that’s unfair. Also unfair is violating norms. Two unfairs won’t make anything fair. But the task at hand is to prevent the spread of the virus, not making fair unfair or unfair fair. That is why the Mumbai Police has said ‘party (nahin) chalegi till 6 in the morning’.

Raina, Khan and Randhawa have been let off. The charge against Dragonfly Club is keeping the pub open beyond permissible hours, apart from not enforcing social distancing norms. If you have been going to clubs, pubs or anywhere else violating Covid norms, do know you are risking both the infection and arrest, even if you don’t risk being named after the arrest.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to remain in Delhi and attend the centenary celebrations of Aligarh Muslim University. The outgoing US President decided to remain in the US and present the Legion of Merit to Modi in India, Scott Morrison in Australia, and Shinzo Abe in Japan.

The awardees, you see, are architects of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Quad, as you may or may not know, is an informal strategic forum between the US, Japan, Australia and India. Quad members have semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills among them. It is seen as a way to keep a tab on China. But we will come to the awards ceremony in just a bit because we need to first go to the centenary celebrations.

No PM has attended an event at AMU since Lal Bahadur Shastri attended one in 1964. Modi attended an AMU event but was not at AMU. That makes no difference. What makes a difference is what Modi said at the event. Modi said the nation is on a path where everyone, irrespective of religion, can be assured of their constitutional rights and their future and where no community is left behind. He said his government’s schemes for the poor were reaching all sections “without any religious bias”.

Having praised the government, Modi also praised AMU saying AMU crafted and polished millions of lives and helped the society during the Covid crisis.

Now, to the award he received from his friend Donald Trump. Can friends use their position to award their friends? Oh, they do that all the time, which is not to say that Modi got the honour only because Trump is his friend. But he definitely is a better friend than Abe and Morrison because Modi was presented with the highest degree, the Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit.

That must have meant a lot to Modi who was denied a US visa in 2005 just when he had packed his bags to travel to New York to address Indian-Americans at a rally scheduled in Madison Square Garden. US, after all, was Modi’s favourite travel destination.

Did you know that after 1995 Modi was spending a lot of time in the US because his role in the politics of Gujarat was reduced following an inner-party rift? Modi used his freed-up time in the US travelling on trains and buses and staying up with NRIs of Gujarati origin.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would also travel to the US for his treatment during that time. During one such trip, Vajpayee met Modi and asked him, “Do you plan to settle here permanently?”

The contacts Modi built in the US came in handy when India carried out the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The US, Canada and Japan were among the countries that imposed economic sanctions against India. The key to lifting the sanctions was with the US. So, Modi would lobby in the US with policymakers and influencers in search of that key.

Today, Modi is the Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit, and many are wondering what legion is. Legion, the Word Of The Day, comes from Latin word lego, which means to gather or collect. Legion, to begin with, was basically a large Roman army. Now, it has come to be used for a large number of people of one particular type. Since all people are people type, so we are all part of the same legion at some level.

Forget legion, let’s talk elections because in India we are always talking elections. Someday we talk election results too. Today is that day. Votes for the Jammu and Kashmir’s District Development Council (DDC) elections are being counted and the counting shows The BJP is leading on 60-odd seats, while Farooq Abdullah-led Gupkar alliance is ahead on 90-plus of the 280 seats that went to polls. This reminds us that Farooq’s house on the Gupkar Road, where the alliance was forged and hence got its name, was attached just two days back by the Enforcement Directorate.

Election results are trickling in but where is the vaccine? On its way. If nothing comes in the way, the first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine will reportedly reach Delhi in the last week of December, which is next week.

What vaccine this is and which country it is coming from can’t be confirmed just yet. What can be confirmed is that BioNTech believes it can make a vaccine against the new coronavirus strain within six weeks. The only thing that can be made faster than the vaccine it seems is the two-minute Maggi, which will take several minutes over and above two if you add a couple of things to it and not boil it.

If Maggi is not your go-to food, we recommend Mushroom and Orzo Pasta Soup, again fast to cook and good to eat.

Keep the food aside (for now) and read this: Karima Baloch, an activist from Balochistan who escaped Pakistan in 2016 to take refuge in Canada, was found dead at Harbourfront near Toronto's lakeshore. Baloch went missing on Sunday afternoon. The hand of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI is suspected. So, when Justin Trudeau is done meddling in causes that are not his to meddle in, he can take a look at Canada’s internal security.

We will leave you with that for the day. Or hold on. Why leave you with something so negative, when it is not a Covid report? So before we go, let us tell you that Priyanka Chopra’s dad-in-law is very happy with PC over the trailer of The White Tiger.

The movie, based on Arvind Adiga’s book by the same name, releases on January 22.

Watch the trailer if you haven’t already.

See you tomorrow.

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Also Read: India’s Bravehearts: Why life at the borders is out of control