Journalist Rajat Sharma is the new DDCA president, beats Madan Lal

Journalist Rajat Sharma was on Monday elected the new president of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA). He defeated World Cup winning former India cricketer Madan Lal. Interestingly, at the DDCA, Sharma is following in the footsteps of close friend and Union minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley was the DDCA president for 13 years between 1999 and 2013. The two go back a long way. Jaitley had mentored Sharma in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Jaitley was the president of the Delhi University Students Union in 1974, and Sharma contested the student body elections in 1977. As Sharma states on his website rajatsharma.in, Jaitley was his senior at Delhi's Sri Ram College of Commerce and helped him pay his fees and their "bond has only strengthened over the years". "I am quite indebted to Arun for having guided me in so many ways," Sharma has written.

Busy birthday

Last week, the Narendra Modi government rejected the findings of a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation that ranked India as the world’s most dangerous country for women. At least one constitutional functionary has taken the criticism in its true spirit. On Sunday, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu urged 125 Indian ambassadors and high commissioners to counter the “inspired campaign against rising India” and stressed the need to quickly address perceptions like “women are not safe in India”. It was also Naidu's birthday and the Press Information Bureau issued a press statement on how the President, PM, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others wished the Vice-President on his birthday, who kept a "busy schedule" by addressing Indian heads of mission, and also holding a farewell for outgoing deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha P J Kurien.

Lending a voice 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was trolled incessantly on social media, and mostly from followers of her party, ever since her ministry transferred Passport Seva Kendra official Vikas Mishra in Lucknow for allegedly insulting an interfaith couple. On Monday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh became the first senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party to come out in her support. "In my opinion, it is wrong," Singh said. Others to come out in her support were former Jammu and Kashmir chief Mehbooba Mufti and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.