Also, wary about Haryana-like incident
A day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit here, the Congress Ministers in the Hemant Soren Cabinet finalised their programmes either outside the State or the Capital Ranchi.
They were apparently wary in view of a hostile crowd hooting Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at a programme attended by the Prime Minister at Kaithal (Haryana) on August 19. Actually following the Haryana fiasco Congress national general secretary Shakil Ahmed had asked all Congress Chief Ministers and of its supporting parties to boycott sharing dais with Modi in future.
Energy-cum-Health Minister Rajendra Singh, who is also the Congress legislative Party leader, first went to Delhi taking complaints about the Medical Council of India to the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and later diverted himself to Shimla for an INTUC’s programme, which was said to be “pre-determined.” Similar is the case of labour and Employment Minister KN Tripathi who hurriedly choose to lay foundations stone of a hospital in Palamau on the day when Modi would be in Ranchi.
“Tripathiji’s progarmme was finalised two days ago and we had no prior plan to lay the foundation stone of 100-bed super specialty hospital at Daltonganj so soon,” said a top official from the district headquarter. Even the Congress leaders were not known to the programme nor the officials of the Health Department, which many admit, would conveniently allow the Minister not to come face to face with the Prime Minister.
Another Minister Mannan Mallick has planned to remain in his constituency citing prior engagements. “I have progarmmes related to Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary and others in my area. I will remain in Dhanbad on Thursday. Anyway I have not been invited either,” said Mallick. His colleague Yogendra Sao is instead conditional saying he may attend the programme provided he gets a call.
When asked about the stand of the party on this, especially after Modi’s Haryana event where Congress Chief Minister Hooda faced embarrassment when a large section of audience chanted ‘Modi-Modi’ and ‘Go Hooda, Go’ as he stood to speak, PCC president Sukhdeo Bhagat played diplomatic. “Democratic principles should be adhered with. One should not commit another mistake to correct the previous one,” he added. Though, Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan has acted on the advice and decided not to attend a programme with the Prime Minister in Nagpur on Thursday.
Nevertheless despite their busy schedule two Congress Minister—KN Tripahti and Geetashree Oraon flanked Bhagat in a press conference on Wednesday to bash the Prime Minister. “He was a dream seller and now has become a spin doctor as well. He did nothing what he had promised when he visited Ranchi last time for election campaign and this time as well we are not expecting anything other than hollow words from him. The purpose of this trip is to benefit the BJP in polls which is being done at Government expenses,” said the PCC president.
The Congress also hit out the tour terming it a dent on the federal structure of the country as newspaper advertisements about the programme has no mention of CM Hemant Soren or the State Government. This has perhaps baffled the Government as well as no formal instruction from the CMO has been passed to Cabinet Ministers to remain present during the programme at Prabhat Tara Ground on Thursday.