Politicians’ joy, flowers’ pain

The flowers of the garden in the Bihar state legislative building compound always run the risk of being picked to greet politicians. The birthday of chief minister Nitish Kumar was not the only occasion when they were plucked to wish him. A lot of flowers are plucked and offered to politicians on the first day of every session,” said a gardener of the Assembly secretariat, pointing out that most of the roses of the sprawling garden had vanished. The heroics of a lady MLC last year stunned the gardeners most, though. “She smashed 16 flower pots after she was physically thrown out of the House. She poured all her anger on the flowers,” he said.

Young again

JD (U) MLC and former minister Devesh Chandra Thakur has been finally “resurrected”. He has been made the chief of the party’s state youth wing. “It is not much of a resurrection for a person who held the post of cabinet minister. But it is soothing when you are considered a youth even though you may be 50 plus,” said a JD (U) MLA. Thakur was the Brahmin face in the NDA-I ministry. Everybody thought he would be re-inducted in the ministry. But he was left out in the cold for his reported indifference towards campaigning for the JD (U) candidates. His compulsion to frequent to Mumbai to look after business was another reason for his exclusion. The Brahmin face of the NDA-II ministry now is Nitish Mishra, the son of former chief minister Jaganath Mishra. He was a minister in the NDA-I ministry but resigned midway. “The Brahmin face of Nitish ministry revolves between Nitish and Devesh Thakur. Thakur always has a chance to stage a come back,” a follower of Thakur said.

The same old Lalu

Old habits die hard. The RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, used to interrupt his party leaders while they delivered speech in his heydays. He does the same even now. “Lalu used to ensure that he had a microphone in his hand for making the interruptions public. His interruptions were so frequent that I used to forget what I had to say. Often many leaders cut their speeches short,” said a senior leader of the RJD. Things have not changed. When former RJD MLA Shiv Chandra Ram was delivering his speech at a public function recently, Lalu interrupted and asked Ram to speak slowly. Ram lost the plot of his speech and cut it short.

 

Revive white in hospitals

When chief minister Nitish Kumar went to his native village Kalyanbigha recently, officials were amused to see doctors wearing spotless clean white coats. “It looked as if they had got their coats tailored for the occasion. It was ironic because a feast was organised in memory of Nitish’s mother,” said an official. In the government hospitals, including Patna Medical College and Hospital, the tradition of doctors sporting white appears to have died down with most medical professionals going around the wards in casuals. Perhaps the chief minister should ask the doctors to sport the white coat again so that the patients can distinguish doctors from others in the government hospitals, he suggested.