Baffling absence of Nitish Kumar
There is considerable shock and disbelief across political parties as to why
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not pay homage to the departed socialist
leader Sharad Yadav. While the BJP deployed its top leadership including party
president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to personally go to
Yadav's Chhatarpur residence and lay a wreath. The BJP also directed the Madhya
Pradesh Chief Shivraj Singh Chouhan to receive his mortal remains at Bhopal
airport and declared state mourning. A large number of BJP MPs also visited
Yadav's home to mourn his death. Rahul Gandhi cut short his Bharat Jodo Yatra
and flew to Delhi to pay his tribute. Several top Congress leaders including
party general secretary Skahti Sinh Gohil, Bihar PCC Chief Akhilesh Prasad
Singh and others were stationed at Yadav's residence to help in arrangements
too. Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav paid his tribune. But those waiting
for Nitish Kumar's presence were in for a shock as he and Sharad Yadav worked
together in Janata Dal (U) for several decades. Yadav parted company with
Nitish Kumar when the latter joined hands with the BJP after winning Assembly
polls in 2015 in alliance with the RJD and Congress. Yadav was offered a
Cabinet post in the Modi-led government which he flatly refused and paid a
heavy price. He lost his Rajya Sabha seat and was subsequently evicted from his
Tughlaq Road residence. He didn't have a house of his own and had to stay at
his daughter's residence on a temporary basis. Nitish Kumar did not join
Yadav's funeral at his native village in Madhya Pradesh either. Political
analysts say that Nitish Kumar's absence may cost him dearly at a time when he
is aspiring to be Opposition parties consensus Prime Ministerial candidate.
Strange
Gag orders
The
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued a rather strange gag
order to all government authorities and scientific institutions including
ISRO not to share details of their studies with the media relating to
Joshimath which saw a rapid sinking of 5.4 cm in just 12 days. The ISRO report
said the massive soil sinking at Joshimath occurred due to a “rapid subsidence
event that was triggered on January 2.” Prior to the ISRO report, a
number of other institutions of the Central government involved in scientific
studies of the Himalayas claimed that they had repeatedly issued warnings for
the past 40 years to the power that be that all construction activities
would be fatal for the very existence of the Himalayan range, but no one
listened. These reports embarrassed the “double engine Sarkars" in
Uttarakhand and New Delhi. In order to avoid further embarrassment, the NDMA
was directed to issue a ‘Gag Order’ to the institutions. The BJP cannot blame
the Congress for destroying the environment as it has been ruling the state for
the past six years and in power at the centre for more than 8 years. But this
is not the only gag order that the Modi government has issued. Ever since it came
to power, there have been many such gag orders. Last year, the Modi
government issued a strange ‘Gag order’ to former bureaucrats and persons who
held key posts not to go public by speaking on TV channels or writing articles
in newspapers. Modi firmly told his ministers and bureaucrats in 2014 not to go
to 5-star hotels and waste time by going to parties. The restrictions on the
movement of media men to government offices and even in Parliament was
restricted making their task difficult. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, a
key source of soliciting information, is dying a slow death as authorities are
not following the law in letter & spirit. A new work culture is emerging
and every now and then a new sermon comes into being.
Amit Shah’s new card in Jharkhand?
Union Home Minister Amit
Shah’s statement in Jharkhand the other came as a bolt from the blue. It gave
an impression that something is cooking up between the ruling JMM and the BJP. Amit
Shah distanced himself from the toppling game and blamed the state BJP leaders. Amit Shah went to the extent of
saying that it was Babulal Marandi who wanted to topple the Hemant Soren
Government. But he nixed it as the BJP doesn’t believe in the toppling game.
Insiders in the BJP high command say that the statement signals that something
is cooking between the JMM and the saffron party. After all, JMM and BJP were
together in ruling the state. After all, the BJP is ruling Manipur, Goa, Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka only by engineering defections.
New DG for India Habitat Center
The sixteen-member governing council of the prestigious
India Habitat Centre on January 6, 2023, decided to constitute a Search
Committee to find out the successor of former President G. Parthasarathy (IFS)
who completed his second extended term on August 31, 2022. The BJP leadership
is gearing up to install a person of its choice for the coveted post. The BJP
leadership is nowadays is keen to install persons of its choice in all such
institutions including India International Center, Gymkhana Club and Delhi Golf
Club and others in Lutyen’s Delhi. It
has already installed an administrator at the Delhi Gymkhana Club.
