BJP caught on the wrong foot
Even as BJP’s one week-long protest rallies have borne fruits with the sacking of Cabinet Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, these rallies were marked by confusions and disarrays. The protest rally at the local CBI office was by far the most unorganised one by the BJP. The protest started half an hour late in the absence of BJYM president Anurag Thakur who could not reach the city in time. Though city BJP president Sanjay Tandon took over the charge, the protest seemed to have disaster written all over it from the beginning to the end. The party's flags reached the protest venue after 20 minutes of the protest ending and then came in the placards on Bansal and corruption. Also, the police force deployed outside the CBI office outnumbered the protesters, who even failed to shout slogans at the top of their voices. A media event gone awry, even the BJP loyalists would say.
local leaders vie for media attention
Fighting against the “common enemy” PK Bansal, the three senior BJP leaders — Sanjay Tandon, Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan fought their own battle against the sacked Railway Minister. They sought media attention “separately”. While the three of them were busy extracting documentary proofs against Bansal and his family, they did not come together even once for over half-dozen Press conferences held this week. leaving the media perplexed, the trio organised separate Press conferences almost every other day to remain in the limelight. From meeting senior UT officials to CBI officials, the leaders also looked for new ways to get media attention this week. Party insiders said the reason is not difficult to understand. All of them are competitors for the party ticket in the lok Sabha polls next year.
Age and Haryana cabinet
In a recent Haryana Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda saw Power Minister Capt Ajay Yadav, said remarked “Yadav ji, aap to jawan hi dikh rahe hain, kitni age hogi aap ki (Mr Yadav, You look so young, what would be your ageIJ)” The Minister simply smiled. Then the Chief Minister was in his elements and philosophical best on age of a person. We all live 20 years of our age carefree and enjoy a lot. But, the actual age starts from 20 onwards. Between 20 to 30 years of age, we are like tigers, run here and there with full force, with huge dreams for life. Between 30 to 40 years of age, we live like elephants and go on smoothly and enjoy our married life with future planning. Then between 40 to 50, life becomes like donkey, always ready to keep the load of our family and responsibilities on shoulders and keep going on. Between 50 to 60, we live like dogs, at this age children grow up and make their own decision, we can bark on them but cannot stop them or object to them. Then, between age 60 to 70, we live like owl, who can only see what is going on, neither can we stop that nor can object on that. This gave a reason for all to introspect.
For Khaira, Hobby became vocation
You are lucky if your hobby becomes your vocation. The adage has never been as true as in the case of Sukhpal Singh Khaira. When he was Congress MlA from Bholath, he would issue Press statements — a dozen a week. He lost the elections last year to his rival Akali Dal candidate Bibi Jagir Kaur, but did not lose the habit of shooting mails, one after another. Taking into consideration his passion for keying in mails, the Congress leadership has now entrusted him with the task of issuing statements by appointing him as the Congress spokesperson. Needless to say, Khaira is a lucky man. He is enjoying his new assignment and is not missing any chance to tap the keys of his computer keyboard, officially. Keep typing, Mr Khaira. It’s good to pursue one’s hobby, that too when it assumes the shades of vocation.
Race for taking credit
The Congress is on a credit-taking spree. The party is taking credit for anything and everything. Be it the property tax issue, or the vexing question of imposing wealth tax on the agricultural land, the party has been patting its back, publicly. In its enthusiasm to grab public acclaim over the issue of paying Rs3 lakh each to gram panchayats unanimously elected during the previous elections, the top leadership, in fact, left its own party member annoyed. The top bosses issued a Press statement claiming credit, ignoring Kapurthala MlA Rana Gurjit Singh, who had actually filed a petition in public interest in the matter. Even now, when the Punjab Police registered an FIR into an attack on Congress MlA from Guru Har Sahai Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, the party has once again given itself the acknowledgment for the same. Remember Congressmen, its good to blow your own trumpet, but at the same time it’s prudent to take care of the listening ears. Just make sure your bugle does not end up making noise for others, even if it is music to your ears.
(Contributed by Nishu Mahajan, Bhupinder Sharma and Monika Malik)