DOWN THE SlIPPERY SlOPE
By ensuring nomination for the former Mayor of Dehradun Manorma Dobriyal Sharma who was floundering long in the bogs of political oblivion and by spiting the prospects of his bête noir, the former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, who was jockeying hard for the nomination to resurrect himself in the political realm of the State, the Chief Minister Harish Rawat has lent fresh credence to the adage that two lions cannot live in one lair. This is not, however, Bahuguna’s maiden drubbing. During the Tehri lok Sabha by-poll in 2012, he, then Chief Minister of the State, had frantically tried to ensure the party ticket for his son Saket Bahuguna. He succeeded. However, he could not ensure his son’s victory despite having convinced eunuch Rajni Rawat who was in the reckoning to withdraw from the electoral battle. In the run-up to the general election-2014, he again sought ticket for his son from Tehri constituency. He again succeeded. However, his son was made to bite the dust again. Now, things seem to have gone their full circle after he was shoved in the cold by the party high command. By denying him ticket when he desperately needed it to keep himself afloat in the mercurial political trajectory of the State, the party mandarins in Delhi seem to have given the final jolt to the downward curve of the State leader’s political career. On the flip side of things, however, Rawat has a record of pulling things off the way he desired. For instance, he succeeded in sending his crony, the former MlA Mahendra Singh Mahra to the Rajya Sabha in 2012. Around that time, he managed to have his four die-hard camp followers inducted in the Bahuguna Cabinet. later, his political graph ascended to its zenith as the high command blessed him with the Chief Minister’s mantle, shoving Bahuguna down the slippery slope of quirky politics.
SECRETARIAT IN DOlDRUMS
Secretariat employees keep on staging sit-ins in protest against the State Cabinet having decided to open the secretariat six days a week and to use biometric system to keep tracks of the attendance of the employees. However, the secretariat employees are fractured in their view of the dragging stir. A section is of the view that they had impulsively gone for the stir without waiting for the Cabinet minutes on the matter. They are for holding fire for the time being till the Cabinet makes its stance clear after the current session of the State Assembly ends. They cite the norm that the Government cannot issue any official communiqué outside the Assembly as long as the session is on. However, the other faction seems unconvinced of the logic of subtle constitutional nuances. They say they must keep on pressuring the Government to pre-empt it from going for any hostile decision later. They say that they are ready to work seven days a week, but they would not under any circumstances countenance the biometric system being installed. It is nothing short of prying into their freedom, to breathe down on their ‘honest’ necks, they say. However, the people are asking what freedom they are striving to protect this obstructive wayIJ Is it the freedom to come late and leave early, defying the norms that says the duty hour is from 9.30 am to 6 pmIJ People who have the misfortune to approach them to get things done know that most of them turn up by 10.30 to 11 am and leave the premises by 4.30pm to 5 pm. The question is-would the Government provide them with the laissez faire in terms of their penchant to do duty at their own sweet willIJ