Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched his party’s “Save the Constitution” campaign. Gandhi started his speech at New Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium by acknowledging the presence of the senior party leadership at the event, and the order left none in doubt that Ashok Gehlot, recently appointed general secretary in-charge of the party organisation, was the most powerful non-Nehru-Gandhi in the party. The Congress president acknowledged Gehlot, followed by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and Sushil Kumar Shinde, but also picked out Digvijaya Singh from where the leaders sat and took his name with a big grin. Singh has recently concluded a “Narmada yatra” across the state, and has made no secret of his ambitions.
Your worth in market cap
Tata Consultancy Services has hit $100 billion in market capitalisation (mcap) — the first Indian company in a decade to do so. One popular fund manager highlighted on Twitter that the Tata group company was now worth more than Pakistan’s total mcap. While the data point earned a lot of accolades on social media, some warned that India shouldn’t rest on its laurels. The combined mcap of the three biggest companies in the USA was worth more than India’s entire mcap, one Twitter user pointed out.
Riding out the storm
Taxi aggregator Ola Cabs on Sunday urged a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) supporter not to discriminate on religious lines after the latter cancelled his ride as the driver was a Muslim. In a tweet on Friday, Abhishek Mishra, whose verified Twitter account says “VHP, Ideology First, Hindutva Thinker, Digital & Social Media Advisor (Views Personal)”, said, “Cancelled @Olacabs Booking because driver was Muslim. I don’t want to give my money to jihadi people.” While there were several angry responses to Mishra’s bigotry, there were also others who took recourse to humour and irony to point out his “hypocrisy”. Pradyot Deb Barman, a Tripura Congress leader, tweeted: “Cancelled an Ola cab because driver’s name was Achhe Din and it’s been four years now and he’s still not here.” There were several others who pointed out that much of India’s crude oil is imported from West Asia so Mishra should desist from riding any cab, not just Ola.