The president of Bihar Chamber of Commerce, O.P. Shah, recently praised chief minister Nitish Kumar at a function at Patna City with words beginning with ‘D’. He declared that Nitish was powered with 11 Ds. To clarify, he said the chief minister was dashing, dynamic, determined, diligent, delightful, dexterous ... Shah started praising Nitish with five words beginning with D and then added six more. It was getting more and more long and confusing,” said a member of the business community. The business community, however, agrees that no praise is enough for Nitish for making a change to their life in Bihar. “Under the previous regime we went to police complaining about kidnapping and extortion calls received by members of the business community. Today our only grudge is against the failure of the police in regulating the traffic properly,” he said. The business community does not appear to mind Shah expanding his Ds further. A news release issued by the Youth Congress leaders recently pertaining to their opposition to the bills passed in the House to curb the power of the chancellor (governor) in the functioning of the universities of Bihar has amused several leaders of the rival parties. “It was a well-written, well researched note having reference to rules and various court rulings on the issue. The Youth Congress leaders cannot produce such a paper without the help of an informed source. The informed source is well-known,” he said, pointing towards a majestic building near the chief minister’s official residence. The Raj Bhavan was in that direction, too. The official residence of the chief minister, 1 Aney Marg, has undergone a sea change since Nitish Kumar has stepped in. Cowsheds have given way to modern gadgets. But the modernisation has hardly reduced his telecommunication trouble. At the janata darbar, the chief minister directed officials to connect him to a certain police officer. To his utter frustration, he found to have been connected to someone else. He got annoyed and asked his officials why they kept such a telephone set which could not get him connected to the right person. The problem refuses to go away. “Once, the chief minister got a rude shock over the phone. The caller asked him to ring two cups of tea to the chamber of one of his official,” recalled n official. RJD chief Lalu Prasad recently urged Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to do a favour to one of his supporters in Bihar. Pawar assured the former railway minister of getting the work done. A happy RJD chief called the supporter from the Central Hall itself. Surprisingly, his supporter did not pick up the phone. “He (the supporter) does not appear to be your supporter anymore. I have seen him making statements in favour of chief minister itish Kumar,” said a ellow former Union minister to Lalu. But that’s the way t is in politics.
Friday, 09 May 2025
