Director Rohit Shetty recently took to social media to share an appreciation post for actor Jackie Shroff. The director who is currently busy shooting for Singham Again, lauded the actor. 

Rohit shared a picture of himself and Jackie from the sets of Singham Again on social media and wrote, “The purest soul I have ever met in my life…”

A livid Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday asked a representative of a private company to expedite a road project in Patna and offered to touch his feet to speed it up.

The Chief Minister’s awkward gesture came at a function where a stretch of “JP Ganga Path”, an expressway along the river that promises to ease traffic in the city, was dedicated to the public.

A presentation was made at the function, attended by dignitaries like Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and local MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, on the project’s progress.

Watch: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar urged an IAS officer to expedite the extension of JP Ganga Path up to Kangan Ghat in Patna, says “I touch your feet; please complete the work on time” pic.twitter.com/bAkFU6aAOK

— IANS (@ians_india) July 10, 2024

Mr Kumar, Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister, was visibly unimpressed and asked the company official to ensure that all work was completed by the end of the year.

“Kahiye to hum aapka pair chhu lete hain (I will touch your feet if that is what you want),” he said. The official scurried back, screaming, “Sir, please don’t do this”, even as top government officials and political leaders got on their feet to prevent the veteran politician from creating a scene.

The incident came about a week after the Chief Minister offered to touch the feet of a high-ranking IAS officer, whom he urged to quickly settle land disputes by carrying out extensive surveys since, in Mr Kumar’s view, quarrels over holdings were found to be the prime trigger for violent crimes in the state.

Meanwhile, the JP Ganga Path function went off without further ado, but not without creating a buzz on social media and evoking sneers from the Opposition.

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav released a statement, sharing the video footage and alleging that the Chief Minister was “lachaar (powerless)”, a reason why he was “always ready to fall at the feet of all, be they government officials or those from the private sector”.

Mr Yadav, who takes pride in the fact that his RJD is the single largest party in Bihar assembly, also taunted Mr Kumar for heading a party that had only “43 MLAs” in the 243-strong House and claimed that “a handful of serving and retired bureaucrats” are running the show in the state.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said loco pilots are important members of the railway family and alleged that there is lot of misinformation and theatrics by the opposition to demotivate them. Vaishnaw took to X to highlight various steps taken by the Railways to improve the working condition of train drivers. “Duty hours of loco pilots are carefully monitored. Rest is provided meticulously after trips. The average duty hours are maintained within prescribed hours,” he wrote.