Undeterred with the party high command showing teeth over their performance the Congress ministers are continuing with fresh salvos against their own government and thus putting the party in an embarrassing situation.
The latest in this line is from Minister with Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, labour, Employment and Training portfolios Chandrashekhar Dubey who blamed Chief Minister Hemant Soren for the ‘underperformance’ of the Congress members in the Cabinet. The firebrand leader, when asked about his take on the all round criticism of the Congress ministers for fueling controversies instead of doing some concrete for the people, said, “Which Congress Minister has been given DepartmentsIJ The Chief Minister has sat on all the important departments or given to his partymen. What one can do without thisIJ”
Going further the Minister even questioned the performance of the Chief Minister himself. “Though he has so many departments with him he is not able to do anything and instead expressing dissatisfaction over our performances. To be frank, I am not satisfied with the working of the Chief Minister,” Dubey told The Pioneer on Wednesday.
The outburst has come when in-charge of party affairs in Jharkhand BK Hariprasad and Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh are scheduled to take stock of the performance of Congress Ministers in the coalition government headed by Hemant Soren. Indications are that a report presented by Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhdeo Bhagat this week in Delhi has nailed the ministers for not only poor performance but their conduct in public as well.
Dubey welcomed the exercise of the party high command. “No one on earlier occasions had come and reviewed the performance here. I am happy. I will present the works done in my department and have prepared a booklet as well. But I would also let them know that Congress Ministers have no such department that can do welfare of 3.5 crore people of the State,” he said. He has been opposing the move to disassociate Rural Works Department from Rural Development and has expressed desire for a reshuffle but does not see this happening.
Dubey is not only who have embarrassed the Government and even party publicly. Another Minister from Congress fold Yogender Sao recently had taken credit for transferring IG RK Mallick and Ranchi SSP Sakesh Kumar Singh after a minor scuffle broke during India-Australia ODI in Ranchi couple of months ago. Sao has also been in news for lobbying for the ministerial berth and got a mouthful from the party high command.
Most disappointing in this line is HRD Minister Geetashree Oraon who is raising one controversy after another making the party distancing from her. Despite Congress making it clear that no rift would allowed to be created on language lines and on the issue of insiders verses outsiders, the Minister is stalling the appointment of TET passed candidates as teachers.
Even Dubey and Bhagat have spoken against the move publicly that proposes to delete Magahi and Bhojpuri from the list of local languages. She is also said to have threatened and got Basia SDPO Deepak Kumar transferred when the latter did not play to her tune. “These are the issues for which the meeting has been called. The picture is not satisfactory at all. These Ministers would be given instructions to change their working style and focus on the agendas in the CMP. We also have to think about policies of the UPA here,” said Bhagat.