Practise what you preach: BJP's MP unit plans movement led by young dynasts

One of the names doing the rounds is Kartikeya Singh, son of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan

The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which hasn't missed any opportunity to criticise the Congress for practising "dynastic politics", might have unwittingly offered a launchpad for the sons of some of its leaders in Madhya Pradesh. The state unit of BJP is putting together plans to start a movement against the ruling Congress party, which will be led by the young sons of many senior leaders. The names doing the rounds are Kartikeya Singh (son of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan), Tushmul Jha (son of BJP national vice-president Prabhat Jha), Devendra Singh Tomar (son of Narendra Singh Tomar, minister of agriculture & farmers' welfare and minister of rural development) and Samarth Chitnis (son of former minister Archana Chitnis) etc.

Under the hammer

Over 2,700 gifts received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be auctioned online from September 14, culture minister Prahlad Patel said. The lowest base price of the mementoes is Rs 200 and the highest is Rs 2.5 lakh, he said. Over 1,800 gifts received by the PM were sold in a fortnight-long auction that began in January this year. The funds generated went towards the Namami Gange, a central government project, to clean the Ganga. The gifts the PM received in June and July of this year, according to the Ministry of External Affairs website, include a pair of Temma Kiriko cut glasses, one chatsubo (tea jar) made from "Osaka Naniwa Pewter Ware", one wooden chess board with chess pieces with an assessment value of Rs 50,000, one large size Shydrak Kyrgyz carpet with an assessment value of Rs 100,000 and another of Rs 70,000 and a hand carved wooden platform of Samadhi of Buddha worth Rs 100,000. An interesting gift received by the late Sushma Swaraj in April when she was still the external affairs minister was a piece of silver-diamond-emerald jewellery estimated at Rs 6.7 crore.

United by Vivekananda

Over the past two days, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress leadership have paid their respective tributes to Swami Vivekananda on the anniversary of his speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893. In his speech in Mathura on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said September 11 is "a day etched in the history of humankind", when Swami Vivekananda delivered his outstanding address in Chicago. His message is more relevant than ever before but the tragedy is that 9/11 is now remembered more for the terror attack on World Trade Center, New York. On her part, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Vivekananda's message "of universal brotherhood is relevant even today".