Deputy CM follows boss

The state government officials strongly believe that deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi was imitating the style of functioning of his boss Nitish Kumar. “It started off with replicating janata darbar at his official residence and asking officials of various departments to be present there. Modiji even renovated his office and the colour of curtains in his office is the same as those in Nitish’s office,” a senior officer said.
The BJP leaders known as critics of the poster boy of the party in the state were not surprised, though. “Modiji is more pro-Nitish than any JD(U) leader. It is only natural that he should try to imitate his leader,” an anti-Modi BJP leader said. There is a group of BJP leaders known to be vocal about their support for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. “This Modi (Bihar deputy chief minister) is a poor shadow of that Modi (Gujarat chief minister),” said the BJP leader, stressing that this (Sushil) Modi should be imitating that (Narendra) Modi.

Paswan hopes high

The LJP chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, has not given up hope of regaining power in the state despite desertions. Citing the increase in the votes of the alliance in the Doranda Assembly bypoll, he recently declared that the RJD-LJP alliance would emerge victorious in the next Assembly polls. The NDA leaders countered him immediately. “The result of a bypoll reflects the local aspirations of people. The state election is a different game,” a JD(U) leader said, pointing out that the NDA had fared poorly in the bypolls in 2009 but swept the Assembly polls. “The main question is if the LJP would survive as a party till 2015. Already, the LJP has been reduced to a one-MP (in Rajya Sabha) and one-MLA party. If Paswan does utter words of hope even his own brothers might leave him,” he said.

Poor health of cop vehicles

A deputy superintendent of police travelling in a private car chased down a police vehicle after he spotted a constable sitting in it taking bribe from a truck driver. “The police vehicle was in such a rundown condition that we managed to catch up with it in a private vehicle,” he said, wondering how the police vehicles chased criminals on the run. “The criminals are equipped with better and faster vehicles,” said another officer. Incidentally, the state bought several vehicles for the police force. “But the new vehicles are with senior officers. There are cops who have more than five new vehicles which should have been given to the cops working at the ground-level,” he said.

Show scrapped, not success note

The art and culture department organises a cultural event at the Bharatiya Nritya Kala Mandir with local artistes every first and third Friday of the month. It even releases press notes after each show declaring it was a run away success. But when the secretary of the department landed at the venue last Friday, he did not find a single artiste or a person in the audience. When the artiste concerned was called, he said he was in Purnea and was not asked to perform in Patna. “The department had already issued a note on the success of the show and an employee was asked to withdraw the releases immediately,” said an official of the department.