Whenever Pawan Kalyan dons a political avatar these days, he leaves everyone scratching their heads: what was that all about? Last week’s meeting between the actor and chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was no exception. Out of the blue, the Jana Sena chief extended his range of social concerns to the well-being of tribal people. It is the reporter’s second nature to question the motive of everything that a politician says. So what is Mr Kalyan’s motive? Why does he want to champion the cause of tribal people? Why now? Does he want to make life difficult for the CM? These were some of the questions hacks asked each other after Mr Kalyan’s presser.
It’s not just journos who don’t know what to make of the Power Star.
He’s a mystery to even hard-boiled politicos.
Vesthi, dhoti, lungi, pancha?
It’s an actor’s gift to attract attention to oneself through the clothes he wears, and Pawan Kalyan succeeded in doing so with a head-to-toe all-white ensemble.
The photos went viral and sparked discussions about it. But what was it? Vesthti, dhoti, lungi, pancha or mundu? Long after the actor went back to Hyderabad, media circles struggled to get the correct appellation for the actor’s sartorial choice. “It’s not a dhoti,” said one
reporter. “And it’s not a lungi. So it must be a veshti.” The star himself said there was nothing to the sartorial surprise. He had performed a puja earlier in the morning and came over to Vijayawada alfrescoBut it was a deft touch all the same.
Samantha’s sari
Talking of sartorial choices, Samantha Cameron’s stunning red sari appearance beside husband David Cameron at Narendra Modi’s Wembley show received an emphatic ‘like’ from Venkaiah Naidu. Speaking at a public meeting in Challapalli in Krishna district, he said, “We should be proud to see Samantha Cameron wearing a sari instead of being content to see our (Telugu actress) Samantha in sari. Indians should realize the greatness of our culture.”
Striking a touchy chord
Blaming successive governments for failure to end the social scourge of untouchability, the convenor of Dalit Stree Shakthi G. Jhansi pointed out the adage: Where there’s a will, there is a way. “There is no political will to end untouchability for obvious reasons. Take the sustained battle against polio or closer home and more recent helmet rule. The authorities are hell bent on enforcing the law and are doing all they can to ensure its implementation,” she said. Addressing a roundtable on atrocities against Dalits, she said though untouchability is a far more serious issue, political parties have been doing precious little to end it.
A casualty
The bauxite row seems to be heating up by the day with the ruling party tying itself in knots even as its actions are a give-away. The Opposition has got ammunition that will keep it going for a long time.
Moreover, it queered the pitch by stating that its MLAs will resign if the government does not reverse its decision. Resigning will force an election.
A minor casualty of the controversy is the Araku Utsav supposed to have been held last week. The utsav is now scheduled for December. It remains to be seen whether the Utsav finally gets off to a start.
Political tourism!
Known for his sense of humour, Prof. A. Prasanna Kumar, Director of Centre for Policy Studies – an independent think tank — drove home his point on the oft-repeated claim by politicians on developing Vizag as a world-class tourism hub.
“During his visit as Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh had described Vizag as jewel on the Coromandal Coast. Several Chief Ministers had declared that they would develop it on the lines of Singapore/New York. But as a senior resident of the city, I want the old Vizag of 1954 with its rich greenery back – when it used to be the Governor’s summer capital,” he said.
Now, Prof. Prasanna Kumar feels that it has become a favourite destination for political tourism.
(With inputs from S. Sandeep Kumar, T. Appala Naidu, P. Sujatha Varma, M. Srinivas, G.V. Prasada Sarma & Santosh Patnaik)
