Kanpur Bhartiya Janata Party edit: Atal out of Advani rally posters, then back in

Atal Bihari Vajpayee has just been sighted in and around Kanpur.

After the Uttar Pradesh BJP gave the former Prime Minister a complete go-by in the run-up to prime ministerial candidate L K Advani’s June 27 rally, the local leadership, in a belated move, has started erecting hoardings with Atal’s pictures.

“This (hoardings without Atal’s pictures) is just not acceptable. It was the responsibility of the state BJP unit. They will have to include Ataljee’s pictures,” said a leader, close to Advani, when asked. Last week, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi had an ingenuous explanation to offer: “Ataljee hamare hriday mein baste hain” (Atal resides in our hearts). On Saturday, he told this paper that the hoardings did carry Atal pictures.

The new cutouts, with Atal inscriptions, are embellished with a catchy slogan: “Ataljee ka yeh sandesh, Advani ko saupon desh (Atal’s message — give the reins of the country to Advani)”.

For a party that has turned sloganeering into an art, the message may just be apt. When Vajpayee became Bharatiya Jana Sangh president upon the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya, writes Advani in his memoirs, one slogan that fired the imagination of the party workers was “andhere mein ek chingari, atal bihari atal bihari (Atal is the only ray of hope in this darkness).

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Maharashtra Minister' s words of wisdom: ' How can mothers, daughters watch this?'

A Day after they forced the state government to put on hold its decision to introduce sex education in schools, Maharashtra's moral police brigade struck again on Thursday, raising not just the red flag against cheerleaders at IPL matches in the state but also the prospect of a ban against them.

Foreign cheerleaders as well as dancers from local troupes performed at the first IPL match in the state at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium last Sunday and they are set to perform again at the second match to be played at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on April 27.

But if Minister of State for Home Siddharam Mhetre has his way, IPL organisers are expected to only get conditional permission to hold the match and restrictions could be imposed on cheerleaders. Mhetre said he would consult the Central government before granting permission.

The issue was first raised in the state legislative council on Wednesday by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. The Congress NCP government, he said, should ban semi-naked women dancing in stadiums just like it had banned dance bars in 2005.

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