People’s govt

Given to histrionics, agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy sought to convince members of the Assembly the other day about the government’s intention to help farmers needing deep borewells in a manner typical of him. 
“This government is by the people, of the people and for the people,” he declared rather pompously hoping to draw applause. 

However, the Opposition members appeared impressed in the least with some of them making critical comments. “This government actually wants to befool people,” said BJP leader K.V. Singh Deo. Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra added: “This government not only befools people, it also befools the House.” 

Fire effect  

The mood in the BJD was downbeat following the fire that took place in the Assembly chamber of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Even the chief minister, who landed the city a few hours after the incident, appeared to be in a sombre mood. 
Though he inaugurated the new building of Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission during the day, he appeared to be just going through the motions. 

He neither addressed the gathering on the occasion nor did he speak to the assembled newspersons. Energy minister Pranab Prakash Das, who accompanied the chief minister, spoke to newspersons briefly, even he was clearly out of sorts. 

User fee ire

Congress and the BJP, the two major Opposition parties, appear to be competing with each other to win popular support by protesting against Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s decision to collect garbage-collection fees from city residents. 
The BJP was the first off the blocks organising a demonstration at the BMC gates with its members trying to force their entry into the corporation’s office. In the process, they smashed the glass door of the office evoking angry reactions from mayor Ananta Narayan Jena. Not to be left behind, the Congress organised a seminar on the issue to generate public opinion. Sources in the party said that protest programmes would follow. 

“This is a people’s issue and we are going to take it up in a big way,” said a party leader.

Loss of face

Last week, state youth Congress president Rajat Choudhary was called twice by the CBI for interrogation in connection with the money deposit collection scam. 

His second visit to the agency’s office appeared to have thrown his party into a tizzy as it took the sting out of its attack on the BJD on the Ponzi scam issue. 

In what appeared to be a face saving move, Congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, aka Lulu, who many see as the mentor of Choudhary, announced that the youth Congress president had submitted his resignation. He even flaunted before journalists a folded piece of paper purported to be Choudhary’s resignation. However, within hours of this, the youth Congress president denied having put in his papers, resulting in loss of face for Lulu.

About-turn 

When food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma’s arch critic excise minister Damodar Rout suddenly came to his defence in the SUV case recently, many were surprised. 

The volte face of Rout spawned all kinds of theories within his party and outside. Within the BJD, the talk was that Rout and Das Burma, who had earlier clashed over issues such as lifting of paddy from rural marts, had struck a mutually beneficial secret pact. 

But soon it became clear that Rout had softened his stand towards his younger ministerial colleague because of the fear of incurring chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s ire. 

Naveen has made it known to his party colleagues he would not tolerate indiscipline of any kind, especially senior members going to the media without the leadership’s approval. 

FOOTNOTE

Lead by example

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had appointed official spokespersons for his party over a year ago after he found that some senior party leaders were not only speaking out of turn but also had a tendency to put their foot in the mouth. But the appointment has not solved the problem completely. While there are motor mouths among them, the bigger problem seems to be that most of these young spokespersons often talk to the media without proper homework, which causes embarrassment to the party. Sources said if things continued in this vein, a change in the panel of spokespersons was possible.