A temple'sprayer

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has an unusual call to take. The country’s richest temple body, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), says it’s facing a resource crunch due to the restricted flow of devotees during the current Covid pandemic. TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy met Sitharaman and asked for Rs 50 crore in lieu of a pile of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 old (demonetised) currency notes. The notes are said to be offerings from devotees at the shrine after the demonetisation in November 2016. A highly unusual monetary headache for the minister.

MLAs Going Cheap?

While the Congress government in Rajasthan is battling the crisis triggered by dissident Sachin Pilot, Jharkhand finance minister and Congress state chief Rameshwar Oraon has accused the BJP of trying to lure party MLAs to topple the Hemant Soren government. Soren, though, is unperturbed. On July 17, he warned that things can easily be reversed in Jharkhand to the saffron party’s discomfiture. Is the BJP listening?

No cure for ignorance

Karnataka health and family welfare minister B. Sriramulu had been maintaining a low profile ever since a video purportedly of him advising treatment for Covid-19 with salt and garlic went viral in April. With cases rising in the state, Sriramulu has now declared that “God alone can save us”. Clarifications haven’t helped as Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa instructed him to “think twice” before speaking in public on the pandemic.

Steering Clear

Four Indian Navy warships recently conducted an exercise with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which was transiting through the Indian Ocean. The exercises were a signal to China, with whom India is engaged in a border stand-off. The official version, though, made it look like anything but this. The Navy tweeted that it had conducted similar exercises in the recent past with its Japanese and French counterparts. Clearly, they are not willing to rock the boat with China just yet.