Kisan Sabha ropes in journalist P Sainath to get better attention of media

Wanted: Media coverage

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an outfit comprising nearly 200-farmer organisation, has mobilised thousands of farmers from across the country to hold a protest in New Delhi on Thursday. The biggest mobilisation has been made by the All India Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while other organisations have also pitched in. Among them are Raju Shetti-led Shetkari Sanghatana and Yogendra Yadav's Swaraj Abhiyan. While the Kisan Sabha had managed to mobilise farmers for most recent farm protests across the country, it hadn't always received commensurate media space. This time, the outfit has roped in journalist and agriculture expert P Sainath to help Kisan Sabha get better display in the media.

The show goes on

The buzz at the preview of Sotheby's inaugural Mumbai auction titled Boundless: India was about the urban legend surrounding the title feature of the collection that will go on sale on November 29. A Tyeb Mehta painting, titled Durga Mahishasura Mardini, priced between Rs 200 million and Rs 300 million, is supposedly part of a lot of 20 paintings that Vice-Chairman and Editor Emeritus of ABP Group, Aveek Sarkar, had purchased when Mehta was still finding his feet, for a princely sum of Rs 200,000. Sotheby's will be breaking new ground if Sarkar's painting fetches as much as it is projected to. It remains to be seen if the auction, which also features works by Amrita Sher-Gil and other masters, is able to rise above the din created by allegations of sexual misconduct against Sotheby's managing director for India, Gaurav Bhatia.

Mutual admiration society 

Wednesday belonged to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his colleague from cricketing days, Congress leader and Punjab minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu. At the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, Khan and Sidhu demonstrated their admiration for each other. Sidhu said the opening of the corridor was a miracle that could not happen in 70 years. “Mera yaar, dildaar, Imran Khan jive (may my friend Imran Khan thrive, live),” Sidhu said. Khan said, "I hope we don't have to wait for Sidhu to become India's prime minister for the two countries to become friends." He also wondered why Sidhu was being criticised in India, and invited him to contest elections in Pakistan.