Fuming Didi, sulking Maya
Audacity of hope
Patience and restraint have never been West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s virtues. It was because of her volatile personality, temper and sharp tongue that the Trinamul Congress leader earned the sobriquet of “stormy petrel of Bengal’s polity”.
She had never in the past taken kindly to any kind of criticism. Of late the firebrand leader has become even more intolerant after facing flak over farmers’ suicide, industrial uncertainty and assault of college principals by her party supporters. She is also being accused of announcing a plethora of projects for development of Jangalmahal but not implementing any.
Last Thursday Ms Banerjee again visited Jangalmahal and addressed a rally at Jhargram. She lambasted her critics, particularly the CPI(M). “They have no right to ask me what my government has done in the past six months. Come and ask me after 35 years, not before that,” she roared.
Perhaps Didi has taken it for granted that like the CPI(M), she is also going to rule Bengal for 35 years without a break. But the people of the state are not likely to wait that long for paribartan.
Dreadful D-word
Karnataka chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda may have finally overcome the fear of B.S. Yeddyurappa, his predecessor who wants to be his successor, too. And Mr Gowda is not a man who fears anything — cockroaches, lizards or snakes, nothing.
None of these scare him. In fact, when a cobra made an appearance at his official residence recently, Mr Gowda did not panic. But say the word “denotification”, and Mr Gowda’s face goes pale.
In Karnataka today this D-word is so poisonous that even if you hear it being mentioned, you could face death — of the political kind, of course. All this is thanks to Mr Yeddyurappa who, while in office, seemed to deem “denotification” of land in favour of his children, his loyalists, his sidekicks, etc his foremost constitutional duty.
During a video conference with deputy commissioners on December 31 last year, one of the DCs requested Mr Gowda to denotify land around two water tanks in her district, saying that several developmental works had been stalled because these were notified lands.
Pat came the reply from the chief minister: “You can ask for anything else, but not that.” After all, he doesn’t want to go the Yeddyurappa way, does he?
Foreigner native
The Pink City was in a festive mood during the three-day mega jamboree Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) from January 7 to 9. But for politicos, it was an occasion to engage in heated arguments against and for the event.
The walled city of Jaipur got to welcome the 1,500 People of Indian Origin (PIO) assembled to participate in the function. For supporters of the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP, PBD provided fodder for debate over cups of tea at shops near the venue.
“Had the BJP been in power, it would have accorded more welcome to PIOs, because the Congress only respects ‘Italian origin’,” saffron worker H.P. Sharma said.
Congress worker Mahesh countered, “Kuchchh desi mool ke hain jo videshi ki tarah rehte hain, kuch videshi mool ke hain jo desi ki tarah rehte hain (There are people of Indian origin who lead life like a foreigner, and there are people of foreign origin who lead life like a true Indian).”
Cold wave and BSP sculptures
The Election Commission’s order to cover all statues of chief minister Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh may have led to a political controversy but the order has also made thousands of homeless people in the state envious of the bronze statues.
The moment the Chief Election Commissioner announced his decision on statues, officials in the state began scouting for the best material possible to cover the statues of the chief minister. The first choice was polythene but that got torn in a few hours due to high velocity winds blowing in Lucknow.
After testing various other materials, the officials finally zeroed in on high-quality tarpaulin that was used to cover the statues of elephants. Ms Mayawati’s statues were, of course, treated with greater respect and a wooden boxlike structure was built around the statues to ensure their protection from sun, wind and rain. Stone statues have better lot than the homeless in Mayawati’s raj.
Alms for minister
Assam tourism minister Chandan Brahma is faced with an embarrassment back home for dodging a bill of CHF 997 (`50,000) at a hotel in Switzerland in August 2011.
Recently the management of Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva, sought the help of the Indian embassy in realising their dues from the minister who is alleged to have left the hotel without settling the bills of the mini bar, laundry and restaurant. Mr Brahma was supposed to pay for all the eating, drinking and dining he did. But he left the hotel without informing the reception.
The hotel complained to the mission and deputy permanent representative Kheya Bhattacharjee in turn wrote to the Assam government to ensure the payment of outstanding bills, while regretting that it may tarnish the image and credibility of India.
Mr Brahma now claims to have settled the bills, but his political opponents are moving from door to door in his home constituency Sidli in western Assam with begging bowls in their hands.
The alms collected, they say, would go towards paying the bill of their MLA. Mr Brahma is known to be one of the richest ministers in the Gogoi Cabinet.
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