Missed target

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government was determined to hold the ongoing budget session in the new Parliament building. However, it had to be called off at the last moment owing to the delay in construction. This is the second time that such a target has been missed. Earlier, the government wanted to hold last year’s winter session there. The buzz in the corridors of power is that the urban affairs minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, is facing flak for missing the target. The construction of the new Parliament building is being directly supervised by Puri. The whispers in the party corridors have it that Puri is being blamed for missing the two deadlines due to his ‘inefficient handling’ of the ambitious project. Interestingly, it was the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, who was keener to start the budget session in the new building and seemed very upset when that did not happen. This was evident, according to some members of the ruling party, when the Speaker kept interrupting Puri during the Question Hour, asking the minister to give brief answers. At one point, Birla even called on another Parliamentarian to ask the next question while Puri was still speaking. Many found this to be rude.

Waning popularity

The supporters of the Union education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in Odisha are quite happy after the saffron party made him in charge of the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka. This has given them a further stimulus to praise Pradhan’s organisational skills. They argue that Pradhan had already demonstrated his prowess in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, where he worked closely with the team of the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, in bringing the party back to power in 2022. But his capabilities have not been quite fruitful in ensuring the party’s victory in his home state. Pradhan’s clout has considerably reduced following BJP’s poor performance in Odisha over the years, including the defeats in every by-poll held after 2019, except for Dhamnagar. Moreover, Pradhan has been facing a challenge in leadership from the BJP MP from Bhubaneswar, Aparajita Sarangi.

Repulsive forces

Many senior leaders in the BJP have been pondering for a while now why the National Democratic Alliance lost its ally, the Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar, and his party, Janata Dal (United), after the ascendance of Narendra Modi as the prime minister. One of them said that most of his compatriots agreed that both Modi and Nitish have a lot in common, leading to the classic situation of, as the Hindi adage goes, ‘ek myan mein do talwarein nahi reh sakti’ (two swords cannot be kept in one scabbard, or two powerful people or two persons with same qualities cannot stay together). “You see both the leaders are arrogant, dictatorial, not open to criticism, never forgive and forget their opponents, rely heavily on bureaucracy, pay much attention to physical fitness, are vegetarian... and do not have a wife. Both of them have their own visions of development and have delivered on its front. They revel in naming projects as ‘Prime Minister’ or ‘chief minister’ schemes... They love publicity campaigns, enjoy reminding people again and again how much they have done for them, and want a tight control on the media,” the BJP leader said. He went on to point out that even if circumstances lead to a situation in which they are forced to work together, they would only repel each other. The saffron party has accepted this fact and believes that even if Modi and Nitish come together again, they will not stay together for long.

Controversial remarks

Videos of a 1990-batch Bihar cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, KK Pathak, showering abuses on administrative officers recently created controversy. His tirade was full of expletives and insults for non-performance. He even threatened to teach them a lesson. The Bihar Administrative Service Association soon registered a police complaint against Pathak, who is the additional chief secretary of excise and prohibition, and demanded his dismissal. However, as the videos went viral, the reactions from netizens turned out to be completely opposite. They supported Pathak and pointed out the corruption of Bihar officials as a result of which the ordinary people have been suffering. It soon transformed into a forum of complaints on the rot in the administration. Sources in the prohibition, excise and registration department said that people from all over the country have been calling Pathak to congratulate him for not mincing words. Just as the brouhaha over the episode was dying, a 2003-batch IPS officer, Vikas Vaibhav, complained about being verbally abused by his senior, Shobha Ohatker, a 1990-batch IPS officer. The latter then slapped him with a show-cause notice. The incident took everyone by surprise as both were considered officers of integrity. Eventually, the CM, Nitish Kumar, had to step in for damage control.

Footnote

Does the Bengal BJP no longer like the ‘G’ word? The Bengal governor, CV Ananda Bose, has not exactly endeared himself to the state leaders of the saffron party by refusing, thus far, to take the battle to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress government. The word is that the likes of Suvendu Adhikari miss the days of Jagdeep Dhankhar, whose tenure as the governor was marked by unprecedented controversy. Distance — Dhankhar is now in Delhi — makes the heart grow fonder.