Posers on drive against flesh trade

he recent arrest of a Jharkhand-based physiotherapist from a beauty parlour has triggered posers on the police drive against the alleged spurt in flesh trade in the city. he physiotherapist had come to the Bihar capital to attend a family function. When he went to the Patna Junction station with his wife and kids on his way back, he learnt his Ranchi-bound train was running late. The physiotherapist thought of utilising the time by going for a hair cut in a “decent” parlour near the station. Leaving his wife and kids in the retiring room, the expert in exercises entered a parlour. But soon the police raided it. The physiotherapist was arrested with some other people on the charge of flesh trade. Somehow, he procured bail. The physiotherapist’s arrest motivated some lawyers to suspect that the Patna police had been conducting raids to expose the flesh trade to divert the attention from the crime spurt in the city. “We find the charges levelled by the police in such arrest of men and women frivolous,” a city-based judicial officer said. “Why do these policemen intensify the raids on parlours and cyber cafés only when the crime goes up?” asked another lawyer.

RJD misses deft writer

here is a huge vacuum in the RJD after former MLC Ram Vachan Rai left the party. Soft spoken Rai, a retired teacher of Patna University, used to draft political resolutions, statements and other material for the party. The RJD workers and leaders are mourning his loss and conceding that they would have to look for a person who has the ability to write political documents. A senior JD(U) leader said: “Rai is a man who wields a pen. He must have felt uncomfortable in a party known to wield lathis (sticks).”

Powerful husbands

everal speakers addressed the Patna Municipal Corporation councillors as Mananiya Parshad (respected councillors) in a recent meeting. Later, some of the speakers realised that the husbands of the lady councillors were attending the meet. One of the speakers was bright enough to coin a term in his address: Mananiya Parshad Pati (honourable husbands of councillors). “It was not original. There is a tradition in Rajasthan to call husbands of lady mukhiyas as Panchpati. He is the real power behind the woman. In Bihar, we had Rabri Devi as chief minister. Fortunately, nobody dared to address his Mukhyamantri Pati those days,” a PMC official said.

Babbar tastes Cong bickering

ormer actor and Congress MP Raj Babbar got a taste of the bickering in the Bihar unit of his party during the Nirman Rally at Sri Krishna Memorial Hall. The show was organised to reveal the Congress’s “quick action” against graft. But it ended up in a blame game. Several Congress leaders had to speak about the role of fellow Congressmen. Often, the supporters of the rival Congress leaders shouted at each other. A visibly frustrated Babbar suggested that since there were so many speakers and the time was limited a buzzer should be sounded after every two minutes, indicating that the speaker should pass on the mike. The state Congress chief Mehboob Ali Quaiser was given the job of pressing the buzzer. However, very few Congress leaders heeded to the buzz. An angry Congress leader retorted that he knew that Babbar Saheb’s flight back to Delhi was in the evening and that there was enough time before that. “Poor Raj Babbar! He was tipped to be the Union minister. Instead, he had to tolerate the Bihar Congress,” a senior politician said.