Delhi Confidential: 108-day Art Biennale planned for Delhi; SC relaxes dress code for women staff on Karwa Chauth

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism. (Express Photo by Renuka Puri)

Welcome to Delhi Confidential, your inside track to the power corridors of the capital. Today: From Gajendra Shekhawat aiming to establish India as a global art destination to the Supreme Court permitting women staff to wear sober attire on Karwa Chauth.

1. 01

   Art Fest

   WITH INDIA’S return to the Venice Biennale after a seven-year gap being hailed as a success, Union Culture Minister Gajendra Shekhawat is keen to replicate it in India. He has planned an art biennale in the Capital which would go on for 108 days. According to the plan, the event will start on December 4 and continue till March 21. Monuments, including Purana Qila, Qutub Minar and the National Gallery of Modern Art, will be the venues for the exhibition. Artists from across the country and 20-odd countries will take part in it. Around 15,000 artistes will perform in the biennale and make it a wholesome cultural event. Shekhawat wants to make the event one of the major art celebrations in the world and India a major art destination.

2. 02

   Past Tense

   AMID THE Opposition’s allegations of violence and intimidation ahead of rural body polls in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has claimed to have provided special police security to YSRCP candidates filing their nomination. Naidu’s statement follows the Supreme Court’s direction to the State Election Commission to prevent poll-related violence in the state. To prove that things are better under the Naidu government, TDP leaders have circulated a letter by N Ramesh Kumar, the SEC in 2020 — when the state last had local body polls — in which he complained to the Union Home Secretary and sought central force protection for him under the then Jagan Mohan Reddy government. In the letter, Kumar had pointed out that at least 24% of the Mandal Parishad candidates and 19% of the Zilla Parishad ones were unanimously elected whereas those were only 2% and 0.09% respectively, in 2014. In Kadapa, Jagan’s constituency, the share of the elected unopposed was 79% and 76%, the letter states.

3. 03

   Ladies Special

   THE SUPREME Court Registry has acceded to a request to relax the dress code for its women employees on the occasion of Karwa Chauth on Thursday. An official communication said the Competent Authority has agreed to the request received on behalf of the female employees to permit them to attend office in sober attire on October 29, 2026, in place of the prescribed official uniform.