PM, HM, PM, RM and PP. What is this? At first sight, it reads like a quack’s degrees. But for Karnataka’s BJP workers, it is the schedule for big leaders’ tours to the state. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was on a state visit on Monday 27 February. Home Minister (HM) Amit Shah is scheduled to visit on 4 March. Then another tour by the PM on 11 March, followed by the defense minister (Raksha Mantri, hence RM) and lastly JP Nadda, the party president (PP). The tour planners of BJP have sent this brief table to the state unit so all of it is recorded.
No bell-calls in Amrit Kaal
To end the VIP culture in the country, the prime minister had already got the red beacon removed from the ministers’ vehicles. Now during Amrit Kaal, the drive to remove the bell from the offices of ministers and government officials has started. The practice of calling the peon by ringing the bell is going to end. Now, if a minister or officer wants to call a peon, he or she will have to get up from his seat and inform the peon. Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw has already removed the bell from his chamber. But some ministers are in the mood to install a siren instead. Now, what to do?
The same old khichdi
When there are fifty-two cards, they can be shuffled again and again. But what if there is only one card in hand? Bihar’s self-proclaimed ‘master’ Upendra Kushwaha is facing the same crisis. He was angry with BJP during the last assembly election in Bihar, so he was helping Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav. To make kheer one needs rice and milk, he had said underling his importance in Bihar’s politics. Now that he has left the RJD, he can’t join Lalu again. So, what are his options now? A prominent BJP leader has said that Chirag Paswan has already cooked (and burnt) the khichdi that Kushwaha is busy cooking. However, if Kushwaha comes up with a new recipe, the BJP might taste it.
Also read: Junglemahal is a West Bengal BJP bastion now. Ghar wapsi, temple prayers for tribals
Nobody thinks of the CM
Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai is under stress. Amit Shah took BJP MP BS Yediyurappa’s name in a rally in the state. He mentioned other leaders as well but did not Bommai. Yeddyurappa further added to the CM’s stress. In his last speech in the assembly, he also did not name Bommai. Instead the former CM talked of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. No one, not even the BJP state president, is taking the current CM Bommai’s name.
Wigs are confusing
JP Nadda got so astonished looking at a fellow party leader that he forgot why that man was in his office. According to sources, Nadda had asked his personal assistance to call the leader to meet him. But when the said politician showed up at Nadda’s office and greeted him, the party president started to panic and couldn’t take his eyes off the leader’s face. To the BJP president, the man standing before him appeared very different, quite unlike the person he knew.
The two had met each other just half-an-hour ago but in Nadda’s office, the man came wearing a wig.
Power of jugaad
There was competition among the young and new leaders of the Congress to sit on the stage at the Raipur plenary. When the party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra and other senior leaders were unfurling the flag, there were many first-timers on the stage in the front and back rows who had successfully juggled their way there. This was when the party issued separate passes for sitting on the stage. But jugaad is jugaad, after all. All senior leaders stepped down from the dais after flag hoisting but the jugaadharis did not budge. They kept shifting their position according to the camera. Even some senior leaders were seen doing the same. When a general secretary took this matter to the stage coordinator and asked about the unknown people and how they reached the stage, the latter quipped “Sir, jugaad.” After Sonia Gandhi’s speech, many party leaders were heard saying that Ahmed Bhai’s arrangement was something else. At least, the stage was fixed.
By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar. Edited by Ratan Priya from the original in Hindi.