Vijayawada Needs U (VNU), a recently-floated student organisation, has been making its presence felt by taking up cleanliness drives. In their endeavour to make the city beautiful, volunteers have been spending their weekends in cleaning up gutka -stained dirty walls after removing posters and giving them fresh coat of paint in refreshing designs. In a recent incident, a few days after they carried out a two-day cleanliness drive at a local bus stand, the VNU members were distressed to see posters of ABVP’s girls’ convention stuck on the walls. “Being a student organisation, we expect them to understand the hard work put in to make the place tidy. Nearly 10 posters have been put out at one place. I somehow don’t understand this logic,” rues an upset K. Naga Sravan, founder of VNU.
English! a strict no-no
Can anyone give importance to English while attending a function organised by Hindutva outfits? Never! The city hall was packed with women power, nay, girl power and the occasion was to honour young achievers in various fields by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Amidst inspiring words and gestures, the organisers felicitated the achievers, thus motivating hundreds of college girls assembled to take a leaf out of their (the achievers’) lives. An overenthusiastic organiser asked the elders to stand up and bless the achievers on stage with the often-used reverent three words – God Bless You. Though the elders wished them evoking the name of the God in English, an ardent follower of Hindutva grabbed the mike to recite “Sathamanam bhavathi Sathayuh Purushasyatha Indriya Yeva Indriyate Prathithishtathi", which is wishing a Vedic life of 100 years, thus sending a message that English was a no-no in Hindutva meets.
‘Delay’ dilemma
for scribes
Narasaraopet MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao tested the patience of the pen-pushers the other day by not turning up to a press meet at the scheduled time. He was to release a poster of the 30 junior National Athletic Championship to be held in Vijayawada. Realising the delay, the organisers asked the scribes to go ahead with lunch, hoping that the MP would arrive before they (scribes) had their dessert. The media persons lost their cool as they were forced to sit for more than one hour even after the lunch and had a wordy duel with athletic association members. However, the scribes had a sigh relief as the MP entered, profusely apologising for his delay.
What’s there
in attire?
Girls’ clothing, which some men consider ‘provocative’, was a topic of debate in the convention of ABVP held in the city. Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman was critical of the vulgar comments men make on modern women attire. “I will not enter into the debate as to which style of clothing is decent and which is indecent. The fact that men who worship Goddess Durga are treating women like commodities is deplorable. It is more painful that even aged women are raped. It’s a shame on all of us,” she said in an emotional tone. Former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari said India could not become a ‘risen power’ as mentioned by US President Barack Obama without Nari power.