HISTORICAL BLUNDERTelangana BJP leaders run for cover every time their national leaders bring up Andhra Pradesh’s 2014 bifurcation in Parliament. The latest trigger was a comment by party MP Tejasvi Surya. Speaking during the special session on the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill, the Karnataka MP dismissed Telangana CM Revanth Reddy’s proposed ‘hybrid model’ factoring GSDP into delimitation as “foolish”. He also tore into the “Congress legacy of the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation”, alleging it was worse than the India-Pakistan partition. Outraged Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders blasted the “ignorant” comments and demanded an immediate apology. It was left to state BJP chief Ramchander Rao to make amends, saying Surya’s words had been “distorted” and that the Partition allusion was not a comparison of Telangana with Pakistan.NAME GAMES | SHERU vs MAKKHI If Rajasthan’s firebrand education minister, Madan Dilawar, had his way, the first thing a newborn received could be a state-approved name. The idea: gently nudge parents away from those “embarrassing” names—think Shaitaan, Sheru, Tinku—when enrolling children in school. But then, the minister’s list of 3,000 approved names doesn’t entirely pass the silliness bar either: Bhayankar (terrifying), Bhiksha (alms), Makkhi (fly), Bikaner (the city!), Dahi Bhai (yoghurt bro). So then, who gets to decide which name is absurd and which isn’t? Not the folks who might nix ‘Shaitan’ without taking note of Major Shaitan Singh PVC, the 1962 war hero whose name screams valour, not villainy. Meanwhile, after a major outcry, Rajasthan has suspended the ‘Sarthak’ name initiative for now and clarified that it will always be for parents to decide whether or not to accept the state’s suggestions.DRY SPELL TO CONTINUE Any lingering hope that Bihar might uncork its prohibition regime after Nitish Kumar’s departure has gone flat rather quickly. New chief minister Samrat Choudhary made it abundantly clear that there would be no such indulgence. “Who can step back on a programme like prohibition,” he remarked, underscoring the fact that there was no going back on his predecessor’s commitment. For those bacchanalians hoping against hope that the dry days were over, it’s back to staring at their empty glasses woefully, at least for now.POSTINGS ON A PAUSE Bureaucratic postings in Madhya Pradesh are dragging on endlessly, with many in the government blaming the alleged disagreements between CM Mohan Yadav and his chief secretary (CS) for it. District magistrate postings, pending since November, came through only in mid April. Now we hear it is the IPS’s turn to wait. The director general of police (DGP) recently met Yadav to discuss names, where the latter reportedly grilled him on the selections. With both the CS and DGP being Delhi’s picks, Yadav is taking his sweet time to say yes or no.VACATION, NOT VANAVAS After a hectic campaign, V.D. Satheesan, leader of the Opposition in Kerala and Congress candidate from Paravur, spent three days in the forests of Kuttikanam, trekking in the Parunthumpara hills with family and friends. After voting on April 9, Satheesan had cheekily declared that he would quit active politics and go on a vanavasam (forest exile, much like Lord Ram’s) if the UDF lost the election. Much to the disappointment of rivals, Satheesan captioned his holiday pictures from Kuttikanam: “In forest, not in vanavas.”–with Prasad Nichenametla, Rohit Parihar, Amitabh Srivastava, Rahul Noronha and Jeemon Jacob- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Apr 24, 2026 18:51 IST
