Some of the Punjab Ministers, it seems, have taken the wedding vows of going hand-in-hand literally.
While the soulmates of couple of Ministers have become their “work spouse” attending their offices, others are making efforts to make their better halves feel at home or have comfortable
work space.
The first-time Minister Aruna Chaudhary would not have thought that seeking help from her former bureaucrat husband, Ashok Chaudhary, would go to such extremes.
The matter has been reached to the office of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh who declared that he would talk to the Minister of State on the reported interference of her husband in her official functioning.
Aruna’s husband, now Gurdaspur District Congress Committee president, was seen attending meetings with the Minister besides handling other office work along with her since she took over the education portfolio in the Punjab Civil Secretariat.
Capt Amarinder described such a behaviour as “not proper”, which “could not be condoned”.
“I would personally speak with Aruna…I am sure the Minister would be able to control any such interference in the future,” he said.
Aruna, the three-time MlA, handles the Higher Education and School Education departments in the newly constituted council of Ministers.
A picture of Aruna and her husband, Ashok, went viral on the social media a day before with the minister standing in background using her cellphone, while her better half was rummaging through files seating on a chair next to the Minister.
Though the husband-wife duo was not available for the comment, their close aide maintained that Ashok was helping his Minister wife in reading files in Punjabi in which she is not comfortable, and that was the reason she had taken oath in Hindi.
That was not the first case in the newly-inducted Congress government. Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife and former MlA Dr Navjot Kaur was also seen attending a meeting of her husband’s local Bodies department.
Their close associates maintained that she was just helping out her husband who chaired the meeting and passed out the instructions.
If that was not enough, former Union Minister and Capt Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur is also helping her husband — not in the official dealings in which he is much proficient, but to make the Chief Minister feel at home in his new house.
It was Preneet who handled the election campaign of her husband in Patiala Urban segment, as Capt Amarinder had the major responsibility to take care of the entire state.
Sources maintained that Preneet is issuing instructions to make changes in the Chief Minister’s new official residence as per his choices.