Education minister P.K. Shahi appears to have given up. After spitting fire against Raj Bhavan (Governor Devanand Konwar) for sleeping over bills, he has realised he can do nothing more.
Reacting to a newspaper headline “Tiff between the government and Raj Bhavan”, the minister said it was not a tiff but a cliff, which he could not climb. “Shahi even said the entire education department should be handed over to the governor,” an official of his department said. Of course, Shahi has a reputation of being a fighter. Everybody knows that he does not take things lying down. “He may be down but certainly not out. He will make Raj Bhavan realise that it is going to be a painful existence,” said the official. However, the “tiff” and the “cliff” are taking the universities of Bihar nowhere.
With the time for the selection of the state legislative council members nearing, chief minister Nitish Kumar has started feeling the heat. On Monday, an elderly JD(U) worker turned up at his janata darbar and insisted a ticket for Bihar’s Upper House should be given to him. He declared that he was old and did not have any source of income. As the elderly gentleman made his plea, Nitish gave him a patient hearing. But when the man declared that he would commit suicide in front of the chief minister if he was not made an MLC, Nitish asked a senior police officer to arrest him as he was threatening to commit suicide. When he was being dragged out by the cops, the elderly person said he did not want to become an MLC and pleaded for mercy. “The man was let off, but it shows the pressure on the chief minister for tickets,” said an officer present at the darbar. Only the university bills are not stuck in Raj Bhavan. About 400 pleas for transfer or grievances of the government and the university teachers are pending before it. “The governor, as the chancellor of the universities, has to take a decision on the pleas by holding a sort of court. But so far he has just listened to the case of Matuknath, suspended for his ‘love activities’ on the university campus. Matuknath staged a dharna for hearing his plea and got a favourable response from the Raj Bhavan. Perhaps the other teachers should also stage a mass dharna against the governor for their cases to be heard,” said a frustrated teacher. The problem, teachers say, is that the governor is either in Delhi, or in his home state Assam. While chief minister’s janata darbar was held after a long interval last week, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi has suspended his darbar citing his busy schedule. Residents settled in disputed Digha land heckled him at is janata darbar last week. Now that a long session of Assembly and legislative council is set o start, the next janata darbar of he deputy chief minister will be held after its conclusion in the first week of April. “It should give him relief from hecklers,” said a BJP worker.
