Grateful team
Naveen Patnaik, the former chief minister of Odisha and the current leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, was elated when the Olympic bronze medal-winning Indian men’s hockey team, which included Odisha’s Amit Rohidas, acknowledged his contribution to promoting hockey in India. Patnaik reached out to the team on a video call and congratulated the players for their heroic feat at the Paris Olympics saying, “Bahut bahut badhaai,” to which all of them responded with great enthusiasm. They expressed iterated that the Indian hockey team is indebted to him. Rohidas went on to emphasise, “It’s because of your support that we have reached this level. Thank you sir for specially sponsoring Hockey India.” At this, Patnaik beamed with pride. Patnaik also shared how Odisha had worked tirelessly to promote hockey. In 2018, when Hockey India was left without a sponsor after Sahara India withdrew its funding, the then Odisha government led by Patnaik stepped in to support the organisation. It successfully organised the Men’s Hockey World Cup twice in a row, in 2018 and 2023. With Patnaik’s backing, Indian hockey flourished, landing a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and again this year. Odisha will remain the official sponsor of both the men’s and the women’s teams till 2036, the current government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party recently announced.
Escape artist
The Union textile minister, Giriraj Singh, is not known for holding his vitriolic tongue. However, he seemed tongue-tied when he recently landed up in Bihar’s Begusarai, his Lok Sabha constituency, amidst a protest by contractual health department workers. Singh had come to participate in a programme and had no prior information about the protest. The contractual workers, mostly women, working for the National Health Mission blocked his route, halting his cavalcade. The protestors tried to talk to Singh and submit a charter of their demands, which include equal pay and regular salaries, to the minister. However, instead of listening to their woes, Singh chose to flee the scene, riding pillion on a motorcycle while his cavalcade remained stuck at that place for around 30 minutes.
Giriraj Singh - 1st day - 16th Lok Sabha - Parliament House. File picture
“He could have met us and listened to our demands... assured us of taking up our problems with the right people. He is at such a high position, but has no time for us. He just ran away,” a miffed protestor said. Singh had faced a strong backlash from locals during the general elections and had to literally beg for their votes to win the Begusarai seat. Meanwhile, Singh’s supporters have changed the name of Kalambagh Chowk in Muzaffarpur to ‘Giriraj Chowk’ without informing the district authorities. One wonders what prompted them to do so.
Prayer for sanity
This Sawan, the lunar month dedicated to Shiva, the Rashtriya Janata Dal member of the legislative assembly from Bihar, Mukesh Roshan, appealed to the god to bestow better sense on the CM and Janata Dal (United) president, Nitish Kumar, so that the latter leaves the National Democratic Alliance and returns to the INDIA fold. “We will welcome him if he comes because the progress of Bihar slackens whenever he is with the BJP,” Roshan said. However, this might not be the entire truth. Sources in the RJD noted that many party leaders are worried about their future as the Enforcement Directorate has filed charge sheets against the RJD president, Lalu Prasad, his daughter and Rajya Sabha member, Misa Bharti, and his son and Bihar’s leader of the Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, in the alleged land-for-job scam in the railways. Several RJD leaders are also missing those glory days when they were in power in Bihar. It remains to be seen if Lord Shiva answers the RJD’s prayer.
Wishful thinking
BJP leaders in Karnataka seem to have indulged in too much wishful thinking, hoping that the CM, Siddaramaiah, would resign over the Mysuru land scam allegations. This did not happen. Worse, the protest march by the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) from Bengaluru to Mysuru to press for the CM’s resignation had negligible impact. In fact, the leader of the Opposition, R Ashoka, had to admit that the marchers had “high hopes” that the CM would quit.
Not only did Siddaramaiah remain unperturbed by the protests but the staunch support from his party also made him look stronger. The Congress seems to have borrowed a leaf from the BJP playbook to weather this storm: after all, the saffron party seldom forces any of its own to step down, seeing it as an admission of guilt.
