The fortunes of Ashoka Road in the national capital have improved dramatically ever since Narendra Modi led the BJP to a thumping win in the Lok Sabha polls. The road houses the national headquarters of the BJP, and since news of the victory started pouring in it has got a massive facelift. The road now has bright lights and Delhi Police has placed barricades in the middle of the road in front of the entrance to the party office so that motorists do not overtake from the wrong side. That is not all. On the day Modi and other senior leaders visited the office, mobile toilets were made available for the aam aadmi who came to cheer their leaders.

What on earth

Bank unions are once again bringing up the issue of a five-day week for their staff. While some of the arguments are routine — other government departments have already done so, the growth in ATMs and internet/phone have expanded off-branch services — there is a twist to the demand this time. The argument is that a five-day week will help reduce global warming and the country will save natural resources by reduced use of fuel by lakhs of employees! But what if the global warming argument is used by managements to rationalise the workforce?

Braveheart

MP Anil Kumar, 50, a former pilot of the Indian Air Force who scripted an inspiring story of grit and courage, died this week, after losing a brief battle with cancer. As a young pilot, he had been adjudged best cadet when he passed out of the National Defence Academy and went on to win accolades in aerobatics at the Air Force Academy. He was paralysed neck down following a motorcycle accident when he was 23 and during his stay at the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Pune, Anil learnt to write by holding as pen in his mouth. One of his essays, “Airborne to Chairborne”, was included in a State Board textbook.

Summer holiday

Immediately after the Lok Sabha election, politicians took off to cooler climes and returned in time for the counting of votes. Now that the election results are out, apparently the CMDs of some major public sector units have done the same. Preparing for hotter days ahead?

PC to reboot?

The buzz is that the Congress high command is keen that former finance minister P Chidambaram, who did not contest the elections this year, makes a comeback to Parliament via the Rajya Sabha. Things may fall in place with Karnataka set to elect four Rajya Sabha members in June. Chidambaram could be one of the Congress nominees. All in all, it will be a breeze for PC given that the ruling party has a strength of 122 MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly.

Badhiya hai!

All ministries are readying themselves to greet their new political masters. Even though the names of ministers are yet to be officially announced, the administrative sections in various ministries have started renovating the ministerial chambers at break-neck speed. Topping the list are the toilets, with spanking new ones replacing the existing ones. Also, old carpets on the stairs leading to the chambers are making way for new ones. Now, that’s literally rolling out the red carpet!

Nervous industry?

Ahead of the gala swearing-in ceremony on Monday, an apex industry chamber representative was nervous about what may seem an insignificant matter. The issue at hand was whether his president would get an invitation for the event. Given that the PMO was inundated with invitation requests and lot of Bollywood biggies had to be accommodated, there were some tense moments for as the buzz was that not all industry chambers had been invited.

Tailpiece

A tweet: Capt Gopinath joined the AAP in the TimesNow studio and quit in the Headlines Today studio!

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