Waving black flags at political leaders is the other side of protest

Things have come to such a pass that the state police allegedly asked some college students to remove their black scarves before attending a programme presided over by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Waving black flags at unpopular political leaders has become increasingly fashionable in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Things have come to such a pass that the state police allegedly asked some college students to remove their black scarves before attending a programme presided over by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Betul district. Half-a-dozen students in their uniforms reached Multai town, 220-odd km south of Bhopal, to attend the event. When they reached the venue, a woman officer allegedly asked them to remove their black dupattas and keep them in their bags. They were told they would get their scarves back at the end of the chief minister's programme. Last heard, the students were still waiting for the police to return their scarves.

In dire times

Adversity is a great teacher. For instance, it has taught the Congress to remember not just the contribution of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but several other senior party leaders who have long been forgotten. On Wednesday, the Congress party remembered Feroze Gandhi on his birthday. "During the independence movement, he was arrested and jailed several times and was later elected as a Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli," the Congress party tweeted about the party leader whom it had not remembered in decades. Rae Bareli is the Lok Sabha constituency of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. In another instance, senior Congress leader and party treasurer, Ahmed Patel, paid a visit to hospitalised former Uttarakhand chief minister N D Tiwari. Tiwari is among those leaders who have faded from the party's memory in recent years. 

Mahatma and privacy

Thinking about what to do during your next lazy weekend afternoon? The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has just the perfect answer for you: Why not browse through a detailed and graphic description of Mahatma Gandhi's blood pressure history? Soon this, and other interesting nuggets of bio-medical information on the father of the nation, will be made public by the ICMR in the form of a coffee table book. Evidently, in the digital age, the Mahatma's medical records do not merit privacy.