After quitting BJP, Congress, former MP Savitri Bai Phule forms new party

Another BSP! 
 

Savitri Bai Phule (pictured), former Member of Parliament (MP) who recently quit the Congress, has floated a party called the “Kanshiram Bahujan Samaj Party”. Stating that the new outfit will work towards realising the vision of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder, the late Kanshiram, Phule said her pan-Indian campaign for “saving democracy” had received an overwhelming response, which prompted her to float a new political platform. While Phule was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, she joined the Congress before the 2019 general elections and was nominated to contest from Bahraich. However, she failed to retain her seat and lost to the BJP candidate. Eventually, Phule got disenchanted with the Congress too, since she was not accommodated in the team of the party general secretary in charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Two events and a jam
 

When several parts of Delhi were gridlocked on Monday, commuters were quick to blame the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh in south-east Delhi as the reason for this. But they soon discovered that events of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were equally to blame. Hundreds of vehicles and thousands of supporters gathered at the BJP national headquarters as Jagat Prakash Nadda was made president of the party in the presence of outgoing party chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Around the same time, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a roadshow in the heart of the capital on his way to file his nomination papers for the February 8 Assembly polls. The filing of the nomination was delayed. “I was supposed to file my nomination today but the office closes at 3 pm. I was asked to file the nomination while the roadshow was on, but I asked how I could leave the people,” Kejriwal said. People asked jokingly if the filing was postponed after astrologers advised him Tuesday was a better day to do it.

Learning at no cost 
 

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India recently organised a seminar to discuss ways of India becoming a 

$5-trillion economy as well as the steps the body could use to publicise its work. One of the speakers began by addressing his audience, comprising mostly cost accountants, or CMAs, as chartered accountants (CAs). He continued calling them CAs until a member of the audience, a CMA himself, interrupted him. After correcting the speaker, he explained how the two — cost accountants and chartered accountants — were different. The speaker apologised before resuming to speak.