Sword of Resignation
Sword of resignation keeps dangling in the Shaktimaan-surcharged atmosphere of the Assembly during the ongoing Budget session. While two MlAs-both from BJP-threatened to quit on being proven wrong in their allegations against ministers, a minister, on his part, skirted the question of resignation when pressed to spell out when he would put in his papers as demanded by one close to the Chief Minister. During the Question Hour, Purola MlA Malchand while asking the Horticulture Minister Harak Singh Rawat a question, said he would quit if the minister was able to cite even a single village where plantation work had taken place as claimed by the minister. However, the MlA Malchand kept mum after the minister cited names of several villages where plantation had been done. Another MlA Sanjay Gupta chipped in as he asked the same minister to tell the House when he would put in his papers as demanded by an influential person. The seasoned minister was quick to invoke the beauty of democracy, saying that asking one to resign is the hallmark of functioning democracy. While speaking on the Budget, Sanjay Gupta, accustomed to be taken lightly by all, including the Chief Minister, threatened to quit if his allegation of the paddy seeds, distributed by Harish Rawat during his stint as a Cabinet Minister in the UPA government, having not sprouted was proven wrong. later, Rudrapur MlA Rajkumar Thukral took recourse to the same bravado as he threatened to quit from the Assembly and vowed never to contest election if his charge of realtors occupying government land in Rudrapur was proven wrong. Observers are piqued by the honorable members making mockery of the august house by rattling in the void ‘blunt’ sabers.
Inscrutable
A Treasury bench member meeting the leader of the Opposition, while the Assembly session is on, has nothing eerie in it. However, the presently forlorn Vijay Bahuguna, the former CM, calling on the loP in the Assembly cannot help creating flutters in the State’s political circles. It naturally triggered tongues wagging. The leaders across the spectrum are engaged in gauging the mood of Bahuguna who has remained in a sulk mode for a long time, being left out in the cold by the Harish Rawat dispensation. CM Rawat looked curious too. As the budget session commenced the former CM had visited the rooms of the cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat and loP Ajay Bhatt. Significantly, Harak Singh’s equations with the CM have been hitting their nadir. The minister was not present when Bahuguna visited. However, Bahuguna and Bhatt talked tete a tete. Election drawing nearer, the followers of both the warring camps are drawing their own inferences. Politics being the art of the possible, things are inscrutable. Who knowsIJ