In what is seen as an after-effect of his stint at the Environment Ministry, Prakash Javadekar, the new HRD Minister, has begun his term on a friendly note.

In stark contrast to his “confrontationist” predecessor Smriti Irani, Javadekar, who was recently elevated in the Union Cabinet, in a congenial gesture, honoured Parliamentarians who have been in the teaching profession or associated with the field of education on the occasion of ‘Guru Purnima’.

On Monday night, Javadekar is said to have called up all “teacher” MPs in both Houses of Parliament, personally inviting them for the felicitation ceremony.

“He called me personally, and then there was a knock at my door at 1 ‘o’ clock at night. It was an invitation letter from the HRD Ministry for the function,” said Sugata Bose, Lok Sabha MP from Trinamool Congress.

Bose, a Harvard professor-turned-politician, has often faced Irani’s ire in the Lok Sabha.

On one occasion, she had pointed a finger at him and asked him “to sit down”.

A visibly upset Bose had later commented that he had never been asked to sit down by anyone ever since his primary school days.

On Tuesday, Javadekar, in his “outreach’ programme, felicitated all ‘teacher’ MPs and gifted each one of them a CD on Mahatma Gandhi and a ‘Tulsi’ sapling, reminding some MPs of Smriti Irani, whose name in a popular Hindi serial was ‘Tulsi’!

Regarded as a festival of the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, Guru Purnima is observed on a full moon day, when respect and gratitude is shown to teachers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, had tweeted his greetings on the “auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima.’

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