At times, affection causes pain
In Indian politics, touching feet of powerful persons is a tradition. Bihar is no exception. But at times, it can be a painful experience for some people in power as it was for chief minister Nitish Kumar last Monday. ecurity men in Nitish’s janata durbar were seen shooing off people trying to touch his feet. Reason: the chief minister has suffered a hairline fracture in one of his toes and touching it could result in extreme pain. To be fair, Nitish never encouraged the feet-touching custom. “But the tradition is so strong that people don’t listen to him when he objects to the practice,” said a senior JD(U) leader, recalling that RJD chief Lalu Prasad also faced the same problem when he suffered a serious fracture in one of his feet.
Ministers absence prompts panic
Agriculture minister Narendra Singh skipped the chief minister’s janata durbar on Monday despite complaints pertaining to his department were to be addressed. His absence against the backdrop of rumour that a section of the JD(U) leaders backed by national president Sharad Yadav were gearing up to revolt against chief minister Nitish Kumar triggered off a panic in the party. The minister clarified by afternoon that he could not come to the durbar because he was tied up in a religious function at his home. Singh’s supporters in the JD(U), including MLAs (two of his sons are legislators), want him to be elevated to the position of deputy chief minister. The JD(U) appears to have lost the war of words with its former ally. The BJP has a large number of articulate leaders to raise issues on a daily basis. The JD(U) tried to counter them with the spokespersons Sanjay Singh and Neeraj Kumar. But they were found wanting when it came to the vocal power of the BJP leaders. Not surprisingly, water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary was roped in to attack former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. “With the monsoon session of the Assembly starting on July 26, it’s time that the heavyweights of the party pitch in with their voices. In the days of the alliance, the party had several BJP leaders to take on the Opposition. “After parting ways with the BJP, we have a handful heavyweights left in the Assembly,” said a JD(U) leader, wondering if Choudhary was giving his vocal chords an exercise for the session. Chirag Paswan, the son of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, hogged limelight at a function organised recently to mark the birth anniversary of former chief minister late SN Sinha. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar, Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar and Union minister Rajeev Shukla shook hands with him and wished him luck for his political future, ignoring a JD(U) leader on the stage. “Both Meira Kumar and Nikhil Kumar want the Congress to be with RJD-LJP because the number of supporters of Lalu and Paswan are huge,” said a senior Congress leader, insisting that the sudden liking for Chirag had something to do with politics.
