Governor Devanand Konwar does not wish to utter the words “vice-chancellor”, at least in public. Early Sunday morning, as the governor arrived to flag off a car rally, a journalist asked him about the vice-chancellor controversy. Konwar told the journalist: “Do you have no better job than talk about VCs in the morning?” he NDA leaders are amused. “Its understandable. Konwar has earned the wrath of the state government and Patna High Court over the issue. But the letter from Union home minister P. Chidambaram appears to have unnerved him,” said a minister. The NDA leaders stress that Konwar should at least make a public statement to defend his decisions, as it has caused much heartburn between him and the Nitish Kumar-led government. “But the bright side is that even Konwar finds his own decision indefensible in public,” the minister quipped. Everybody wants to remain on the right side of the man who matters the most. A BJP minister, who flew to Gujarat to show solidarity with Narendra Modi, was, however, a reluctant traveller. “Actually I did not want to go. I was powerless as the party high command ordered me to,” he told his supporters. Aware of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s aversion to his Gujarat counterpart, very few BJP ministers would like to stick out their neck in favour of Narendra Modi, “except for animal and fish resources minister Giriraj Singh and health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey,” said one BJP leader. He added that deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi (from the BJP) was lucky to be in Europe right now, when the heat was on. JD(U) ministers are even more cautious around the chief minister. One Dal minister refused to comment about his department stressing that the “boss” had already spoken on it. Recently, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary and Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui had a news meet inside the Assembly within half an hour of each other. The canteen staff served tea to mediapersons during Siddiqui’s news meet but expressed helplessness to serve other eatables. “All the eatables have been kept for the Speaker’s news meet,” an employee told a visibly shocked Siddiqui. “The Assembly staff know who to please and who they can afford to displease. They know their priorities,” said an MLA. /B> The recent comments made by land revenue minister Ramai Ram against former chief minister Rabri Devi has been attributed to episodes at a time when Ram was a “loyal” follower of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. “When Laluji came to power, Ram was the state president of then Janata Dal. He was removed on the pretext that he had accepted a crown made of gold from a follower, but was also humiliated by a probe ordered by the party in the matter. After 1995, Lalu also promised to make Ram a deputy chief minister, a promise never realised as Lalu said no such post existed. Ram is only getting back at Lalu,” said one supporter of Ram.
Wednesday, 21 May 2025
