Dream meeting with Amitabh Bachchan
Paintings of megastar Amitabh Bachchan made by 22-year-old cerebral palsy-afflicted Ayush Kundal using his toes, won the youngster a dream date with Big B.
Hailing from Barwaha town of Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone, Ayush doesn’t even have a TV at home but managed to catch a glimpse of his favourite film idol at his relative’s place.
“Braving acute pain, Ayush used his toes to fashion Big B’s paintings, which were later put on social media. One of Big B’s fan groups subsequently showed them to Amitji and then we met him,” said Ayush’s proud mother Saroj.
Water scarcity prompted Kamal Nath to join politics
It was water woes in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh that compelled Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath to join electoral politics in 1979. While addressing a National Water Convention in respect to Right to Water Act in Bhopal, Nath recounted how some villagers waited for him for three hours late at night while he was travelling from Saunsar to Padhurna in Chhindwara district in 1979.
“I stopped my car and asked why they were standing; they said their village is half a km from the road. They had to travel 12 km to get water. The boys of the village were not getting married, as people didn’t want their daughter to travel so far for water far.” The CM said on the same day he decided to make basic amenities available to all through electoral politics.
Minister’s Bharat Ratna gaffe
Three decades after Dr BR Ambedkar was posthumously honoured the Bharat Ratna, Madhya Pradesh minister Harsh Yadav demanded the highest civilian award for Dr Ambedkar. Surprisingly, the bizarre demand was made at a programme in Sagar on Sunday. While opposition BJP mocked the minister for lacking general knowledge, Congress sources clarified that the minister wanted a Bharat Ratna for distinguished lawyer, jurist and educationist Dr Hari Singh Gour, who was also born in Sagar. Dr BR Ambedkar was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1990.
Tribal woman flogged by parents
While a SIT probes a mob attack on six farmers over child lifting rumours on February 5, a shocking video of a young woman being flogged in full public in the same district has gone viral.
According to Dhar SP Aditya Pratap Singh, the video is two months old and a primary probe has revealed that the woman, married in an adjoining village, had gone to Gujarat with her husband, but had fled to her parents’ house. Instead of listening to the woman, her parents, uncle and a powerful leader thrashed her publicly. “Three persons have been detained,” said Singh.
Anuraag Singh
Our correspondent in Madhya Pradesh singhanuraag.jaurno@gmail.com