Mango muses
Maverick politician that he is, Harish Rawat threw the politics of the State into a virtual tumult after his Mango party in which he had invited people from all walks of life and politicians of all hues was attended by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. It is clear that both mighty Rawats wanted to hammer home messages to their supporters and detractors within their political outfits for which the mango party of senior Rawat provided a perfect platform. While Harish Rawat wanted to make it clear to Congressmen that despite being down he is still not out and is the tallest leader of the party in Uttarakhand, TSR ostensibly served twin purposes of widening the rift within Congress party and taking away the limelight from the Uttara Bahuguna fiasco by feasting on the tangy mangoes offered by Harish Rawat. The knee-jerk reaction of BJP State president Ajay Bhatt in which he just stopped of censoring TSR for attending the feast and confusion within anti Harish Rawat camp of Congress party clearly shows that senior Rawat had the last laugh by hosting a political show of strength that was held in garb of a social event termed mango party.
Meaning of Nameste
Many in the media circles of Dehradun were surprised recently when after a long time they were invited over a cup of tea by former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Though the apparent reason for the invitation from the master politician was to inform media about his literary sojourn of Europe, anyone with primary understanding of the State’s politics knew it perfectly well that the Uttara Bahuguna- CM TSR spat, the public furore generated by it with detractors of TSR claiming that change is on the anvil in the Himalayan state was the exact reason for this gesture of the former CM's rendezvous with scribes. ‘Nishank’ on his part parried political questions by stating that he only wanted to meet the friends from media and have a ‘ Nameste’ with them. When the journalists asked the real motive behind this ‘Nameste’ of his, the veteran politician remarked with a smile that unnecessary inferences are drawn from his innocuous gesture of offering tea to them.
Slum slush
The Uttarakhand High Court (HC) order to the State Government to remove all encroachments on the banks of Rispana river meandering through the heart of Dehradun city has thrown many prominent politicians of the city belonging to both BJP and Congress into verge of nervous breakdown. These politicians were instrumental in setting up slums on banks of Rispana River and have used them to create their vote banks. One such politician is a legislator from the BJP while another was a former MlA from Congress. The nervousness of these politicians is understandable as the people they have established on the banks of Rispana are now knocking their doors as following the HC order the authorities have started sending notices to the encroachers of the River. Faced with an obstinate administration armed with HC order and determined to clear the Riverbed, there is little these politicians can do apart from watching in dismay the erosion of their political base with removal of the slums.