Doting fathers
Emulating the hoary Congress practice of ensuring dynastic succession, three party satraps from the State appear to be hell-bent on setting the stage for their sons to step into their shoes. The three are members of the Harish Rawat dispensation. The first of the trio has his eyes fixed on an Assembly constituency now being represented by a cabinet colleague who won it as an independent. The second one is mulling to foist his son in the same constituency from which he got elected. The third is projecting his ward as the leader of the future. Whenever the department officials or the party workers approach him with petitions he is tending to nudge them to approach his son instead. However, the question is- would the State party leadership brook this, as the top brass keeps saying that the list of the candidates would be prepared following painstaking efforts to judge things on the yardstick of the maximum winning prospects, the battle 2017 being likely to be tough. One wonders what the Congress high command would do. Adept in promoting dynastic succession starting from the venerated first family, the high command is not morally justified to spite the fathers doting on their children. The party insiders say that promoting such a succession culture is completely in tune with the culture of the grand old party. In the State too, former CM Vijay Bahuguna had gone out of his way to shove his son down the party’s gullet. His efforts proving a fiasco is another matter, they say. Even the present CM is engaged in promoting his son Anand. However, whether Anand would headlong plunge into the heat and the dust of the electoral contest with his father’s blessing is not clear yet, they say.
Nishank swallowed bait
Things could not have come at a more opportune moment for the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and his dispensation. When the wily CM has been trying to go to the grand electoral battle 2017, projecting the Centre in poor light for its alleged step-brotherly discrimination, none other than the former CM and BJP’s state stalwart Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has inadvertently or otherwise swallowed his bait. It is learnt that Nishank, the Haridwar MP, had shot off a letter to the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, saying that the State is yet to get Rs 166 crore as assured by Niti Ayog for the Ardh Kumbh Mela-2016. The letter leaked in the media, CM Rawat lost no time to pounce upon it to say that it has vindicated their point. Now, the question is- how the letter has got leaked in the media. Some say Dr Nishank himself has leaked it to spite the party’s top brass leaving him out in the cold while others say that those inimical to him within the party has done it to insulate him further in the party’s roost. However, there is little doubt that the ruling party would go the whole hog to use the epistolary vindication of their point to spite the chances of the saffron party at the upcoming hustings slated early next year.