‘Injustice’ in Telangana — it pays more to tear political posters down than to repair them
Power Gallery

‘Injustice’ in Telangana — it pays more to tear political posters down than to repair them

BJP's worried media department had to whisk Vasundhara Scindia away when they saw her mingling with reporters after the press briefing had concluded.

   
Telangana: Special branch officer caught for clicking pics of BJP's resolution

Representational image | BJP leaders attend the BJP National Executive meeting (Photo/ANI)

The BJP recently deployed Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan in Telangana for 48 hours. Upon reaching Medak guesthouse with his supporters, Balyan found it locked from inside. When he called the on-duty sentry to open the door, the latter replied that he himself was locked inside and asked the minister to get the door opened so he could be freed. This went on for a long time and the gate remained locked. Eventually, Balyan had to check in at another hotel.

Tearing up Posters is matter of solicitation

Hyderabad has been witnessing a ‘poster tearing’ campaign over the past week. BJP leaders’ posters were put up for the national executive meet. Posters of opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha and Telangana chief minster K Chandrashekar Rao were also erected. Now, the workers of both parties have been going about tearing the posters down every chance they get. But it’s the repair guys who are facing the heat. Both sides have deployed 14 people to repair the damaged posters, which costs Rs 250 each. But the repair workers say those tearing the posters down are getting paid Rs 400. Gross injustice. Well, it was pointed out to them that there is greater risk in tearing a poster down than in repairing it.


Also read: When BJP leader got a lesson on sanskaar from a fellow party CM


Still in the awe of Rajmata

Former MLC Ramachandra Rao, who is considered among the big leaders of Telangana BJP, had a slip of tongue recently — in froint of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Scindia. While Introducing Vasundhara, Rao ‘erroneously’ referred to her as ‘Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia’. Everyone present on the stage pointed out the mistake to him. However, Vasundhara said that it doesn’t matter, Rao took the name of a person he remembers very well. Rao promptly corrected his mistake and apologised. However, prior to ending his address, he had another brain-fog moment and again addressed Vasundhara as Rajmata Vijaya Raje. Ooops.

Nothing beyond the briefing

During the BJP’s national executive meet, Vasundhara Scindia was entrusted with the responsibility of addressing a press conference after so many years. Vasundhara conversed with reporters even after the briefing was over. Seeing her mingling with the journalists, the workers from the party’s media department whisked her away in a jiffy. Journalists had started asking questions on issues other than the national executive, and the BJP media department was worried Vasundhara might start answering them too.


Also read: BJP is worried about a worker’s text message and Agnipath is putting ministers back on TV


Congress internal conflict

The Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan is facing brickbats internally too after the Udaipur killing. Party leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam, a supporter of Sachin Pilot, raised questions about the law and order situation in Rajasthan. The newly appointed media in-charge Jairam Ramesh objected to this and took the matter to the party high command. Digvijaya Singh came to Krishnam’s defence, presenting robust arguments in his favour. But Ramesh countered them by citing the party high command. The matter reached to a point that the two sides wanted to establish who is ‘closest’ to the high command. On this, Krishnam said that you (Jairam) might be the ‘Ram’ to the high command, but I will remain their Krishna (charioteer). Unlike the Udaipur incident, the Congress doesn’t seem to be headed towards calm any time soon.

What’s up with UP’s bureaucracy?

There is a strange tussle going on inside UP’s bureaucracy. An additional chief secretary is set to retire after a month. A group of officers is worried because it does want the retiring official to get any extension. But there’s another problem: if the extension is denied, then the official may be rewarded with ‘political adjustment’. What do the CM and the leadership sitting in Delhi want? To find out, several IAS officers of UP cadre posted on important posts in Delhi are being consulted. The retiring official, meanwhile, is now seen laughing, smiling and having conversations with the same officials with whom he was involved in a ‘cold war’ just a few weeks earlier. This is psychological warfare. There is a third group, too, which is more worried about what is really going on. Why did the Boss laugh? And why did he not?

Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.

By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar and translated by Ram Lal Khanna from the original in Hindi.