‘Pakoda’ protest
The last few days in Haryana were marked by volunteers of opposition parties selling ‘pakodas’ on roadside stalls to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘pakoda’ metaphor. In one such protest, supporters of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), the student wing of the INLD, sold ‘pakodas’ in Bahadurgarh. To take their protest further, they reached local BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik’s office and started selling ‘pakodas’. To everyone’s surprise, the BJP MLA quickly turned the tables on them and bought pakodas for Rs 500 and started eating in front of them. Before going back inside, Kaushik advised the protesters not to think of any profession as small. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and finance minister
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of Parliament from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann has been maintaining a rather low profile for some time. But whenever the stand-up comedianturned-politician speaks, his speeches are laced with sarcasm. During the first half of the budget session, he spoke for not more than 20 minutes to speak, but hit out at the BJP and Congress governments at the Centre and in Punjab with his razor sharp one-liners on issues ranging from remunerative prices for crops and goods and services tax (GST) to jobs and free smart phones. “Digital India bol kar umeed jaga di desh ke naujawanon mein, desh ko uljha rakha hai Khiljion, Tipu Sultanon mein, sarkar ki yojanaon ka laabh vyakti kuch khas le rahe hain, sanyansi vyapar kar rahe hain, vyapari sanyas le rahe hain,” he said, reciting a short poem on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll promise of “acche din”. As usual, the video clip of his speech went viral on social media.