PMO deleted tweet describing Chaudhary Chhotu Ram as 'messiah of Jats'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a significant impact on social media, particularly Twitter, since the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He has a dedicated social media team that has rarely taken a misstep. Once such rare occurrence took place on Tuesday after the PM unveiled a statue of Chaudhary Chhotu Ram, an iconic pre-independence farmer leader of undivided Punjab. The PM tweeted he was honoured to unveil the statue of a “farmer leader” who was “a messiah of the Jats”. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala lost no time and said the PM’s description of Ram as a "Jat leader" was evidence of his “narrow vote bank politics” and that Ram was a messiah of farmers across India. By Wednesday afternoon that tweet had been deleted from the PM’s Twitter handle. But Surjewala hit out once more. “Farmers will not be fooled by your slogans invoking their caste. Please apologise to the farmers of Haryana,” Surjewala tweeted.

No music?

Car launch conferences have moved on from their fuddy-duddy push-info-move-to-Q&A modules to more festive formats. So when Tata Motors quietly launched its new sedan Tigor on Wednesday — even cutting out the loud background music that accompanies announcement of a product's price at its launch conferences — it seemed to disappoint many. Guenter Butschek, managing director and chief executive officer, Tata Motors Worldwide, said the car was so exciting that the company decided there was no need to use music to make the announcement “attractive”. The price of the car starts at Rs 520,000.

Illustration: Binay Sinha

Navratri spread

Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla combined the first day of Navratri with a housewarming prayer for his newly allocated official bungalow, a stone's throw away from North Block, which houses the Finance Ministry. A common practice during Navratri is phalahaar, or an offering of fruits. There were fruits at the event, but there was also a lavish and delicious vegetarian spread in the lawn. There were chaat stations, delectable vegetable kababs, Navratri special dishes and some lip-smacking desserts. Perhaps Shukla took a leaf out of his boss' book. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is famous for his multi-course lunches. That was before health complications forced him to go slow.