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Diet Coke bottle at Modi-Trump meet catches eye
New York: A bottle of Diet Coke sitting on the table in the midst of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump during their bilateral on Tuesday caught the eye of netizens.
Netizens wondered why a plastic bottle was kept there, especially as India has declared its resolve to end the use of single use plastic by 2022.
Some twitterati, circling the bottle in a picture of Trump and Modi, said that leaders do not practice what they preach.
The bottle was reported to have been kept by the US side as they had hosted the bilateral. President Trump is known to be partial to Coke too.
Singhal to be shifted from TTD?
If the reports coming from the power corridors of Amaravati are to be believed, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal is most likely to face the exit soon.
Singhal is likely to be shifted back to New Delhi as resident commissioner in Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, a post he had held till May 2017, when he was brought to TTD as executive officer by the then Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu.
His appointment created an uproar, as he was the first IAS officer from North India to be made TTD Executive Officer, which was in deviation from the norm.
However, he continued to rule the TTD for two years, in which several controversies surfaced that maligned Naidu’s image.
Sources said the state government is planning to appoint senior IAS officer J S V Prasad, who had earlier worked as endowments commissioner, as the TTD executive officer in place of Singhal.
Hitherto, another senior IAS officer Praveen Prakash was serving as resident commissioner in Delhi, but he was recently transferred as principal secretary to chief minister.
It is also learnt the Jagan government is planning to shift the present vice-chancellor of NTR Health University C V Rao. He is learnt to have been asked to step down. And in his place a Reddy professor is likely to be appointed, sources said.
When Will Ram Take iSmart Decision!
Three months have passed since the release of “iSmart Shankar,” but its lead star Ram Pothineni has not given his nod to the next project.
He wants a script that should be a sure shot hit. Despite meeting with many young directors and listening to their scripts, he is not coming to an ‘ismart’ decision.
Something is lacking in each script is his opinion and this is what made him not to come to the conclusion.
Not even his uncle Sravanthi Ravikishore knows what would be Ram’s next film.
“iSmart Shankar” is a massive hit in his career. He doesn’t want to spoil this golden period. He is not in a hurry to takes his next film to the sets immediately.
However, three young directors who have narrated him the stories are becoming restless. They want clarity from him.
He has already cancelled the remake of a Tamil hit. He is looking for pure mass entertainers. Ram also rejected the story of Ajay Bhupathi’s “Maha Samudram”.
MP sex scandal: College going girls forced to bed VIPs
Indore: Even as 12 top serving bureaucrats and eight former Ministers of Madhya Pradesh seem to be in a big trouble in the honey trap scandal, the kingpin of scandal Shweta Jain has confessed to the SIT that she coerced at least two dozen college going girls, from lower middle class families, who were used to seduce the high and mighty of MP government.
Shweta also admitted that the main objective of the honey trap was to procure lucrative government contracts, running into several hundred crores, from the targeted VIPs.
Most of the contracts were awarded to reputed companies by Shweta Jain and her aide Aarti Dayal on commission basis. Besides, procuring contracts, Shweta was also managing postings of several IAS and IPS officers at top of the line assignments.
During interrogation by Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Indore, Shweta said that on demand of bureaucrats she lured many college girls and finally coerced them to bed with men, mostly of their father’s age.
In one instance, SIT confronted Shweta with a college girl Monica Yadav. Monica disclosed to SIT that on pretext of seeking admission in a prestigious college she came in contact with Shweta, who claimed that she was close to top brass of the MP government.
To convince Monica, an outsider to Bhopal, Shweta took her to Secretariat in Bhopal where she was introduced to three secretary level IAS officers. Shweta also provided an Audi car to Monica to shuttle between Indore and Bhopal.
A senior SIT official said that Monica initially refused to oblige Shweta and returned to her parents home in Narsinghgarh. Subsequently Aarti Dayal visited Monica’s place and told her father Hiralal that if he sends her daughter to Bhopal, then her NGO would bear all costs of Monica’s education.
Later, Hiralal, whose financial condition was not good, allowed her 18 year old daughter to leave for Bhopal with Aarti.
In a statement given to SIT, Monica said that one day Aarti showed her an MMS of Shweta who was having sex with a bureaucrat. Aarti told Monica that to reach at the top, one has to do all these things.
SIT investigation reveals that in the name of the NGO and offering jobs to daughters of lower middle class families, Aarti and Shweta coaxed several college going girls and after a brainwash, introduced them into the honey trap racket.
In her statement Monica alleged that on August 30, this year, Aarti and an aide Rupa, brought her to Indore in a luxury car wherein they stayed in the posh Infinity hotel.
The next evening a government engineer Harbhajan Singh, 60, was introduced to her. Later Monica had to spend the entire night with Harbhajan who had sex with her. Monica disclosed that Aarti made a video recording of the hotel room where she slept with Harbhajan.
Later, on the basis of the video clip, Shweta demanded Rs 3 crore from Harbhajan Singh. Monica was also threatened that if she revealed anything to her parents the obscene video would be uploaded on a website.
The first women SSP of Indore, Ruchi Vardhan Singh, a key member of the SIT, said that Shweta and Aarti eyed college girls and by persuading them to lead a modern hijinks life, they gradually pushed these young girls into the honey trap scam.
The girls were first shown the glamour and luxury of five star culture and later were paid handsome amounts in lieu of honey trapping politicians and bureaucrats. Besides college going girls, over 40 call girls were also hired by Shweta to cater to wide range of clients which included a former Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
Ajeya Kallam’s days in CMO numbered?
It looks like the days of former Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Ajeya Kallam, who had been the member of YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s core team in the administration, are numbered.
According to reliable sources, Kallam, who had been the principal advisor to the chief minister from the day one, would be moved out of the chief minister’s office shortly.
He is likely to be appointed as state vigilance commissioner, a post which is generally held by retired bureaucrats.
In fact, Kallam’s appointment as the principal advisor to CM has caused a lot of heartburn among senior bureaucrats.
Apparently, even chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam had been instructed to take the approval of Kallam for any policy decision.
Kallam used to call shots in the CMO, as every appointment used to be made only after clearance from him. And he used to sit on the files for days together and was not able to catch up to the speed of Jagan.
It is learnt the chief minister had received several complaints from the MLAs, ministers and officials against Kallam’s style of functioning.
Even Jagan felt Kallam was not able to meet his expectations. Hence, he decided to shift him, sources said.
Ram Charan to Make 50 Cr Profit?
Ram Charan’s second production “Sye Raa” is setting new records in terms of pre-release business and pre-sales of tickets.
The official word about the film’s budget is Rs 250 Cr but anyone who knows about the film business says that they are hyping up a little for various reasons.
Even if we take Rs 250 Cr into account, producer Ram Charan will be laughing all the way to the bank with profits made on the pre-release business.
Trade pundits say he has already recovered the investment and made staggering profits.
The film has made a whopping Rs 180 Cr theatrical business in all languages worldwide.
Ram Charan got less amount than he expected from Hindi producers but he is happy with the total theatrical business in all languages put together.
Interestingly, Ram Charan is getting a huge amount of Rs 75 Cr from digital and satellite rights. The digital rights of Southern languages were already sold off to Amazon Prime for Rs 50 Cr. The satellite rights are going to fetch another Rs 25 Cr.
So far, he has already done Rs 255 Cr pre-release business from theatrical and other avenues (digital and satellite). If we deduct the actual investment he made in this film, he will be sitting with nearly Rs 40 to 50 Cr.
If the film clicks, he will be reaping in more revenue from the theatrical. Despite taking a huge risk of investing more than Rs 200 Cr on his father Megastar Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan has made such huge profits.
Ram Charan is a shrewd producer, says a trade pundit.
KCR ‘fixed’ Jagan with Pragathi Bhavan ‘leaks’!
Reposing faith or trust in Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao proved ‘costly’ for many in politics. This has been proved umpteen number of times in the past.
There are several examples of leaders who faced betrayal by KCR, after keeping faith in him.
The classic example is Congress, which lost its identity in both the Telugu states which granted statehood to Telangana, believing KCR’s promise that he would merge the TRS with the Congress once the bifurcation process was completed.
The TRS chief did not stand by his word and contested the elections alone to grab power. Later, he played all political games to decimate the Congress party.
At individual level, there are many other victims of KCR like A P Jithender Reddy, G Vivek, Babu Mohan, M Kodandaram, Nayini Narasimha Reddy, Tummala Nageshwar Rao, Kadiam Srihari, Jupally Krishna Rao, Swamy Goud etc and the list is endless.
Now, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to have joined this list of scapegoats who trusted KCR only to be ditched later.
On Sunday last, Jagan flew down to Hyderabad to have a lengthy meeting with KCR at the latter’s official bungalow Pragathi Bhavan.
They discussed many issues, including Godavari-Krishna river linkage and resolution of pending bifurcation-related issues.
Thought the meeting was supposed to be confidential one, the CMO issued a press release late in the night on the issues that came up for discussion between the two chief ministers.
At the same time, the close aides of KCR at Pragathi Bhavan also gave leaks to a section of media stating that the two Telugu CMs expressed their anger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and also their party for trying to dominate the Telugu states.
The leaks also revealed that both the chief ministers decided to put up a joint fight with the Centre. Naturally, such leaks interest the media which played up the same prominently the following day.
Naturally, the reports came as a big embarrassment to Jagan, who has been trying to be friendly with the Centre, unlike KCR who is in a confrontational mood.
So, the CMO issued a clarification in the first hour stating that there was absolutely no truth in the reports and they were all fabricated.
The CMO further said no political issues came up for discussion at the meeting of Jagan and KCR.
Apparently, Jagan also expected a similar denial statement from KCR so that the media reports could be proved wrong.
YSRCP party leaders expected at least KCR’s media Namasthe Telangana, Telangana Today and T News to condemn the yellow media news on leaks.
But KCR remained silent and did not respond to Jagan at all, landing the latter in a fix. Since the meeting took place at Pragathi Bhavan, the denial from Jagan would get the credibility only if there was a similar statement from KCR condemning the media reports.
But since the leaks have come from Pragathi Bhavan with full notice of KCR, he did not issue any such statement. This led to the talk that whatever the media reported must be true and Jagan had issued the denial only to save his skin.
KCR’s media pubished only Jagan’s version condemning leaks, but did not mention anything about KCR or Telangana CMO’s version!
This naturally gave scope for Telangana BJP leaders to arrive at a conclusion that KCR and Jagan had indeed discussed about Modi and BJP in their meeting and devise a strategy to fight against Modi and BJP.
Poor Jagan is now paying the price for believing KCR and going to Pragathi Bhavan for discussions.
Sye Raa Trailer 2: Intense Battle Scenes, Inspiring Dialogue!
Team Sye Raa dropped another trailer focusing on the Battle Field scenes. This looks even intense than the theatrical trailer with Chiranjeevi looking fierce and powerful in the warrior mode.
Battle scenes are said to be the main highlight of Sye Raa and this trailer shows us a few glimpses of how huge those scenes are going to be.
This trailer would further boost the expectations and hype around the historical war drama directed by Surender.
There is a deliberate attempt to prepare the audience for the emotional climax of Sye Raa. The final scene in this new trailer shows further emphasizes the emotional ending of the magnum opus.
Theatrical trailer of Sye Raa is still clocking millions of views, but the team is not letting the buzz go down by launching new videos at frequent intervals.
Sye Raa is all set to release in five languages on Oct 2.
India still awaits Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘magic’
New Delhi: It was with much fanfare that the other scion of Gandhi family Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined active politics in January this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, with the Congress party pinning its hope on her formal entry to bring a “magical” turnaround in its fortunes.
Eight months have passed since then but her expected “magic” is nowhere to be seen and the grand old party continues to struggle.
Priyanka, who had been campaigning for her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi in family pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for over one-and-a-half decade, joined active politics on January 23 when she was made Congress General Secretary in-charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Her formal entry came just three months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and it was surrounded by a lot of euphoria that she would boost the party’s electoral prospects.
She marked her launch with a mega 17-km-long road show in Lucknow on February 11 in which the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other leaders like state unit chief Raj Babbar and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Western Uttar Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia also participated.
Subsequently, she held marathon meetings with the party activists to figure out the problems grappling it for decades in the state where it has been unable to come to power since 1989.
After spending three days in Lucknow, she returned to Delhi and remained away from the state till March 17, as a result of which the initial fizz lost steam.
However, she made dramatic appearances on two occasions – one, when she went with her brother to meet the family members of Pulwama terror attack martyr and second, when she went to meet Bhim Army chief Chandrasekhar Ravan in the state.
As the Lok Sabha elections inched closer, she went on a three-day river ride programme on Ganga from Allahabad to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency of Varanasi. During her campaign, she tried to connect with the communities of ‘mallah’ (boatmen) and weavers, residing on the banks of the river in Prayagraj, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Varanasi.
After that she campaigned extensively for the party candidates across the state in over 22 other parliamentary constituencies, besides Rae Bareli and Amethi.
But despite all her road shows and public rallies in different parts of the state, the Congress could manage to win only Rae Bareli, represented by Sonia Gandhi, out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The biggest shock came from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, which Rahul Gandhi could not retain as Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani won by a margin of 55,000 votes.
According to party leaders, Priyanka’s entry into politics boosted the morale of the Congress workers but she cannot convert crowds into votes.
A senior party leader said Priyanka managed to attract crowds during her road shows and public meetings, mainly because of her resemblance with her grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
However, the votes remained negligible for the Congress candidates as in most of the places across the state losing margin with the BJP was more than 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh votes.
“After the Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka Gandhi, instead of taking the back seat like her brother, took the task to revive the party,” a party leader said.
She has been meeting party leaders and activists from the state twice a week since June this year and has so far met over 3,000 party leaders.
“She even formed the team of secretaries to get the real ground report from all the districts of the state on the causes for the party’s debacle,” the party leader said.
However, a Congress General Secretary said, “If Priyanka Gandhi is really serious about the revival of the party, then she needs to hit the streets like her grandmother did after the electoral loss in 1977 Lok Sabha elections.”
He went on to add, “She needs to come out of her comfort zone and twitter activism and lead the party workers on important issues on the streets.”
