BJP should stop drama of having dinner at Dalit homes: Savitri Bai Phule

Fallout of extended hours
 

Market participants are fretting over the negative fallout of the decision to keep stock markets open till midnight. While the move is expected to create more jobs as manpower requirement will go up, many are joking it will also create more opportunities for divorce lawyers and doctors, as those addicted to trading will have 15 hours instead of just eight. The move triggered a barrage of stock market jokes. “All bachelors in stock market should forget about marriage. Married people can now happily expect divorce,” went one tweet. Some see the popular stock market lexicon BTST — buy today, sell tomorrow — changing to BSST or buy in sunlight and sell in tube light.

Phule’s anger
 

Rebel Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bahraich, Savitri Bai Phule, has made common cause against party lawmakers who have been inviting themselves at Dalit homes for a meal. She accused them of “ridiculing and insulting” Dalits by carrying pre-cooked meals to their homes and eating there “in the name of breaking the caste barrier”. They were, in fact, reinforcing caste-based divisions, she told reporters. Her protests against her own party are becoming common. Only last month she said she would fight all efforts to end reservation or amend the Constitution and that she didn't care if she was denied a party ticket in 2019.

Bollywood to the rescue
 

After IPS officer Siddharth Mohan Jain became the talking point when he was filmed firing a celebratory shot during his farewell party in Katihar, Bihar, leader of the Opposition in the state, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, must have knocked on Bollywood's door for inspiration. He slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and said “sare aam aapke SP tamanche par disco karte hai (your superintendent of police dances with a pistol in full public view)”. The young RJD leader was repeating a line from a popular number — tamanche pe disco — from the 2013 Hindi film Bullett Raja directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia with Saif Ali Khan and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead. Yadav also said the state was witnessing mahagunda raj — a situation worse than gundaraj. Yadav's father's long stint as Bihar chief minister was often associated with the term jungleraj.