After a notice to serve ‘beef biryani’ for Sunday lunch at a students’ hostel in Aligarh Muslim University surfaced over social media, triggering a row, two students and the provost of the institution were booked over charges of hurting religious sentiments. Students Mohammed Faizzullah and Mujjaism Ahmad Bhati, and provost Fasih Raghiv Gauhar were named in the FIR. A notice pinned on a hostel board, citing authority order, said ‘beef biryani’ would replace the usual chicken biryani for Sunday. Protests erupted on campus, with AMU administration rushing to attribute the ‘miscommunication’ to a typing error.
Mayawati’s Milkipur jibe at Akhilesh
The ‘Milkipur drubbing’ of Samajwadi Party gave Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati an opportunity to fire a salvo at Akhilesh Yadav asking him how he failed to save the stronghold of “Ayodhya Ke Raja Awdhesh Prasad”, even when BSP was not there to play spoilsport. “How did the cycle get punctured this time?” Mayawati jibed. The BSP chief, not mincing her words, hit out at the SP which had attributed its defeat in seven of the nine bypoll seats in November to the BSP which, SP claimed, aided the BJP by covertly encroaching upon SP vote bank.
Squirrel deity to find place near Ram Lalla
Legends say, when Lord Ram marched his forces towards Lanka to rescue Sita, even ‘gilharry’ (squirrel) lent their aid to the mission by contributing utmost in the construction of the ‘setu’ (bridge) to Lanka. Now, a temple for the squirrel deity is set come up at the Ram Janmabhoomi complex near the under-construction Ram Mandir wherein Ram Lalla was consecrated. While temples dedicated to mythical figures like Guru Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Agatsya, Valmiki, Sharvari, Nishadraj, and Gidhhraj Jatayu are being built simultaneously, a temple dedicated to squirrel is also being planned.
Namita bajpai
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh
namita.bajpai@newindianexpress.com