Delhi Confidential: A special flight to Deoghar

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating Deoghar airport in Jharkhand, BJP leader and Godda MP Nishikant Dubey wanted to give it as much publicity as he can. In the first flight to Deoghar, Dubey is taking BJP MPs, including Bhojpuri stars, to show how the Prime Minister is working to develop the remote areas. He has booked tickets for 35 people – 13 MPs, including Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ as well as actor Shekhar Suman along with their spouses. Dubey was clear that the goodwill gesture is only for BJP leaders as the airport was gifted to the remote area by Modi. BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy will be flying the aircraft.

House full: On Friday, the Centre’s event held at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre to mark two years of the NEP, 2020 in Janpath saw a large turnout of academics, officials from across the country. With the main auditorium getting filled up much before the arrival of Home Minister Amit Shah and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, many guests, including top AICTE officials and directors of a few IIMs, had to be accommodated in adjacent halls equipped with facilities of live-streaming. However, by the time the livestream began in those halls, the cultural performances put up by student groups were over. Eventually, visuals came up, but it took another 10 minutes for audio to get played.

New assignment: Pranay Verma was on Friday appointed India’s new high commissioner to Bangladesh. A 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who is currently serving as India’s envoy to Vietnam, Verma will succeed Vikram Doraiswami. Doraiswami is likely to be appointed as Indian High Commissioner to the UK. Indian High Commissioner to the UK Gaitri Issar Kumar retired from service on June 30.