Queen of controversies: UP minister Swati Singh is in the news again

Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Women’s Welfare Swati Singh (pictured) is in the news again. Singh, who had courted controversy in May 2017 after a video showing her inaugurating a beer bar in Lucknow went viral, is in the dock when an audio clip surfaced, in which she is heard admonishing a senior police official for registering a case against realtor Ansal Developers. In the audio, Singh is purportedly instructing the woman cop to drop the case, or else face the music. Her aide misbehaved with the media when reporters sought her response on the controversial audio. Thereafter, Singh was summoned by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has also sought a detailed report from UP Director General of Police O P Singh on the episode.

Rein in the enthusiasm

Too much enthusiasm can ruin one’s electoral prospects. A former Delhi Municipal Corporation councillor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has learnt this the hard way. Last week, one of the senior-most leaders of the Delhi BJP was hosting a bunch of party leaders for an informal meeting when the ex-councillor reached uninvited and started discussing the possibility of getting a ticket for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi. Now, lobbying for tickets is not unusual but the party leaders were of the view that the aspirant had chosen the wrong forum and timing. Despite many of them dropping hints that the aspirant should leave, he stayed on, infuriating them further. It is learnt that the party leaders have decided that this person is not to be given the ticket because he failed to present his case in the right manner.

Real pollution, fake picture

As the pall of polluted air continued to shroud Delhi and other parts of north India, a viral photograph purportedly showing the Paribesh (environment) Bhawan in Kolkata, which houses the office of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, threatened to rake up a storm. The photograph showed the outside walls of a building which had rows and rows of air-conditioning machines. Many started criticising the West Bengal government, saying how the picture represented a contradiction — the institution that is supposed to fight pollution was actually contributing to it! Within days the picture was busted as fake but not before conspiracy theorists pointed out how the photo was manufactured to take attention away from stubble burning on the outskirts of Delhi.