DailyOh! Susanta Pal’s uthak baithak in Bengal, to BJP’s CM candidate in Kerala
Susanta Pal said he made a mistake by being a part of Mamata Banerjee’s TMC as he joined the BJP.
It was ghar wapasi for Susanta Pal with the punishment for having left the ghar in the first place. Pal decided the quantum of punishment – three uthak baithaks. So Pal lowered his hips from a standing position and then stood back up thrice. He held both ears with both hands. Else the uthak baithak would have turned into a squat. Pal, a local block TMC leader, said he made a mistake by leaving the BJP and joining the TMC in 2005 as he joined the BJP again today in West Bengal in the presence of former TMC and new BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. Pal said he joined TMC to defeat the Left and has come back to the BJP to defeat the TMC.
Susanta Pal, a local block #TMC leader who joined the BJP from the TMC, did sit ups holding his ears on the stage in front of #SuvenduAdhikari.#UserGeneratedContent (@iindrojit)More Videos: https://t.co/FAHzdk9TO8 pic.twitter.com/CtY08Zo4BX
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) March 4, 2021
In Kerala’s Wayanad, four senior leaders jumped the Congress ship, all in a week’s time. Former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee member KK Vishwanathan, KPCC secretary MS Vishwanathan, DCC general secretary PK Anil Kumar and Mahila Congress leader Sujaya Venugopal resigned from the party saying the Congress leadership has failed in the district. The district is the parliamentary constituency of Rahul Gandhi where he was until recently sea swimming. Good that he did, because swimming is a full-body exercise that can take your mind off from who is coming and who going.
For BJP in Kerala, E Sreedharan has been chosen to captain the ship. The party, which has no way of forming a government in the state, has chosen Sreedharan as the party’s chief ministerial candidate. Sreedharan had said that there will be a landslide switch over to the BJP if he is projected as the chief minister face. Now he is the face. May 2 will speak about the landslide.
In Tamil Nadu, there was no landslide but a big surprise. Last night Amma’s (mother's) former aide Chinnamma (little mother), VK Sasikala, in a two-page letter, released first on Jaya TV, announced that she is going. Where is she going? Away from politics. Many took this to mean that she is quitting politics. Others said she hasn’t quit but has been pressured to step aside for a while because the presence of AMMK in Tamil Nadu polls would have split votes and paved the way for DMK’s return to power. AMMK may now merge with AIADMK and prevent the vote split. Why does the merger look likely? AMMK was launched and run by Chinnamma’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran while she was in prison. Without Chinnamma, Dhinakaran has no takers. So, Dhinakaran may have to take the deal being offered by AIADMK.
On February 8, Sasikala made her way back to Chennai after a 23-hour journey by road, meeting and greeting people on the way. Only to quit politics on March 3? This has made many believe Chinnamma has been ‘forced’ to take a break and hasn’t quit politics.
To quit is to leave permanently even though you can come back to organisations that you once quit or pick up habits you quit. Smoking is just an example of habits people keep quitting and picking. Quit, the Word Of The Day, comes from the Latin word quietus, which meant free. In Medieval Latin, it applied to be free from wars and debts, among others. What you are free from today could well consume you tomorrow. So, no matter what the dictionary says about quit, there is nothing permanent about quitting.
From Tamil Nadu to Karnataka now. Capital city Bengaluru is the best city says the government’s Ease of Living Index 2020. Pune is the second-best. The competition was among 111 cities of India.
While Bengaluru and Pune have ease of living, Delhi has ease of snatching. If you are a snatcher in Delhi, you can snatch chains, phones, bags, money from people on the streets, in autos, in busy markets. Basically anything and anywhere. On February 27, a 25-year-old woman named Simran Kaur was murdered by two snatchers.
Many say that has become possible because Delhi doesn’t have the laws to deal with snatching. It is reported that Delhi is now trying to push a law, like Haryana, to deal with snatchers. The maximum punishment for snatching in Delhi currently is three years. In Haryana, the minimum punishment is five years. Will increasing the quantum of punishment help? The conviction rate in snatching cases is low because of legal tangles. If you can’t send snatchers to jail even for six months, how will you convince them that they can go to jail for five years if they snatch? By sending them to jail.
Do you which country reports the highest number of snatchings? Uruguay is the top country by robbery rate in the world. In 2018, the robbery rate in Uruguay was 866.8 cases per 1,00,000 population. Uruguay is followed by Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Cabo Verde.
From robbery, let’s shift focus to scams. Scam 1992 will move to Scam 2003 on Sony Liv. Scam 1992 was about Harshad Mehta. Scam 2003 will be about Abdul Karim Telgi, who earned big bucks by printing counterfeit stamp paper.
Since we are talking OTT, let us also tell you what the Supreme Court today said about OTT. The court said OTT needs regulation because OTT platforms also show pornography. The Supreme Court was hearing a plea on the controversy surrounding the show on Amazon Prime Video — Tandav.
This is sure to generate some heat in the days to come because we are in an age of heated arguments. To cool your mind down, we suggest yoghurt. To make it tastier, we suggest strawberry yoghurt. Because taste bhi, health bhi and cooling bhi.
Stay cool.
Stay safe.
We will see you tomorrow.
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