Upright man

Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), is an upright man who would not humour politicians irrespective of the power they enjoy. He looked visibly annoyed when he was asked to stop in the middle of his speech at a training programme organised by the AICTE in Bhubaneswar last week to welcome the chief guest, agriculture minister Damodar Rout, who arrived late. It took some pleading on part of the organisers to make Sahasrabudhe stop his speech and felicitate the minister who, however, looked perfectly at ease. Even the students taking part in the training programme felt awkward about what happened.

Press kit gaffe

The news conference organised on the eve of the four-day annual convention of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) that began on September 7 with a focus on promoting tourism in the state saw the organisers distribute media kits that contained notebooks highlighting Andhra Pradesh and Bengal as tourism destinations as much as Odisha. Newspersons covering the event were left flabbergasted as they had expected the focus to be entirely on Odisha, which is yet to get its due in tourism development. “Here, too, we have been overshadowed by others. The fault is entirely ours,” whispered one of them. 

Shah favourite

The importance of Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan was there for all to see at Thursday’s news conference of BJP president Amit Shah in Bhubaneswar. He was the leader in focus as far as BJP leaders from Odisha were concerned, though his cabinet colleague and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram also shared the stage with Shah. At the end of the media interaction, Pradhan moved around freely, exchanging pleasantries with members of the press. It was obvious that the minister was Shah’s favourite and was most likely to emerge as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in 2019 though the BJP chief refused to make any commitment in this regard. 

Strained ties

The relationship between former minister Bijoy Mohapatra and the BJP leadership appears to have become extremely strained. The leader, known for his excellent organisational abilities, was conspicuous by his absence at programmes during BJP president Amit Shah’s visit to the state this week. This, incidentally, is not the first time that Mohapatra has chosen to distance himself from party events. Sources said his problems began following a tiff with Union minister and party colleague Dharmendra Pradhan over the party’s stand on the Mahanadi dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Ever since, things have deteriorated but the overwhelming opinion in the state’s political circles is that it would be foolish to write off the veteran who has seen many ups and downs in his long and eventful political career.

Report card

Union minister Jual Oram faced a few embarrassing moments at BJP president Amit Shah’s news conference in Bhubaneswar when a scribe sought to compare his performance as a minister with his cabinet colleague, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. While the journalist commended Pradhan’s “good work”, he pointed out to Shah that Oram’s tribal affairs ministry had done little, which was evident from the fact that tribal children have been dying of malnutrition at places such as Nagada in Jajpur district. While Shah did not pay much attention to the scribe’s statement, Oram squirmed in his seat with an awkward expression on his face.

Twitter prowess

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has become hyperactive on Twitter. He comments on almost every important issue, but the focus is invariably on extracting the maximum political mileage out of his posts. While one of his recent posts sought to highlight the government’s “landmark” decision to abolish the block grant system, another had visuals from an Odia daily about his sudden visit to a village near Berhampur. “Each post is chosen carefully to ensure maximum impact. It’s a big image building exercise,” said a BJD leader.

Ashutosh Mishra