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Glasshouse

From BJP MLA's threat on beheading people who oppose the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya to  Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' launch of  'Mee Mukhyamantri Boltoy' (This is me, the CM, speaking) on radio, find out more in this week's Glasshouse.

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Glasshouse
Illustration by Anup Ray

Vile Talk

BJP MLA T. Raja Singh, who represents Goshamahal in the Telangana assembly, has kicked up a storm by saying that 'traitors' opposing a Ram temple in Ayodhya will be beheaded. His April 5 remark went viral, but an unrepentant Singh repeated it four days later. Muslim leaders are demanding Singh be booked for the hate speech and the police officers, who were at the venue where he made the comment, be taken to task.

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BJP MLA T. Raja Singh

In Modi's Footsteps

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched 'Mee Mukhyamantri Boltoy' (This is me, the CM, speaking), on the lines of PM Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' on radio. The first episode was telecast on AIR's Asmita channel on April 9. The brains behind the initiative is state information secretary Brijesh Singh from Fadnavis's hometown Nagpur.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Curtains on a Colonial Past

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi is ridding Kolkata's Raj Bhavan of colonial vestiges. He has renamed the VVIP Prince of Wales Suite as Rabindranath Room. The John Anderson Suite will now be the Vivekananda Room. The Second Class Suite that housed staff and servants will simply be called the underground chamber.

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi

Paean to the PM

The 2,322nd birth anniversary celebrations of Emperor Asoka in Patna soon turned into competitive sycophancy among BJP leaders, who lost no time finding his modern equal in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among them was Bihar's Opposition leader Sushilkumar Modi. The writ of both Asoka and Narendra Modi, Sushilkumar explained, "ran over the world". The BJP has in the past described Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire, and his grandson as members of the Kushwaha community. But something was amiss. Ergo, Sushilkumar has now demanded that the Bihar government rename state capital Patna as Pataliputra, the ancient capital of the Mauryan empire. Nitish Kumar is yet to respond.

Guessing Games

With the file on the appointment of the first chief of defence staff doing the rounds of the PMO, the armed forces brass is speculating if the appointee will be an admiral, general or air chief marshal. The buzz in South Block is the appointment is likely soon. Since the seniority principle was set aside by the government while picking General Bipin Rawat as the army chief, few are willing to hazard a guess on the new appointee.

Flying High

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, whose birthday falls on April 29, has already got a present-a "crowd-funded" helicopter. Supporters of Jogi's party, the Chhattisgarh Janata Congress, financed the helicopter for their leader so that he can comfortably do the 600-odd public meetings that Jogi hopes to address before the assembly elections next year. The names of a transport company owner and an MLA are doing the rounds as the likely financiers, but Jogi's party denies it.

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi

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