Don't make eye contact with monkeys: Lok Sabha's advisory to visitors

Dealing with monkeys

On Monday, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued an advisory to visitors and its staff on ways to protect themselves from monkeys roaming in the premises. The set of dos and don'ts include directives such as "do not make direct eye contact with monkeys", "do not cross the path between a mother and her infant" and "do not tease or irritate the monkeys. 

Leave them alone and they will leave you alone", among others. It also urged people to "not get scared if a monkey makes a 'kho-kho' noise as normally, it is a bluff."

Mixed signals from Kushwaha

Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party president Upendra Kushwaha (pictured) met Opposition leader Sharad Yadav in New Delhi on Monday. Kushwaha, a Union minister whose party is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, has been giving mixed signals on his continuation in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Yadav had severed ties with Kumar after the Janata Dal (United) [JD (U)] chief joined hands with the BJP last year. Kushwaha has expressed his reservation to BJP president Amit Shah's proposal that his party and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party contest fewer seats in 2019 compared to 2014 so that Kumar’s JD(U) could be allotted as many seats as the saffron party fights. He has also accused his former mentor and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of humiliating him.

Yes to bahu, beta; no to bhai

Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister Kusum Mehdele is upset and she made it known on the social media. This came after her brother Ashutosh Singh Mehdele was denied a party ticket to contest the coming state Assembly elections while "bahus and betas of other party leaders" were given tickets. She dropped a Twitter bomb: "...Is this the BJP of Deendayal Upadhyaya and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee?" Mehdele is a four-time MLA from the Panna constituency.