Friday, 17 September 2021 | Gajendra Singh Negi
Of Snakes & Donkeys
By letting the old spirit of the Dhaincha seed scam out of the bottle the indomitable Harak Singh Rawat has opened a front against the former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat within the ruling BJP. In an interview Harak who has a reputation of being a party hopper claimed that the then Chief Minister Harish Rawat wanted TSR behind the bars in the scam but he ( Harak) saved the skin of TSR by writing a note in his support on which an annoyed Harish Rawat quipped that he is feeding milk to a snake. Not known to mince words TSR shot back by commenting that Dhaincha -Dhaincha sound is uttered by an animal which brays and with his tongue in cheek praised the character of Harak. Alarmed by this seemingly all out war between these prominent leaders in which they are not hesitating to hit below the belt the saffron party has initiated a fire fighting exercise. It would be interesting to note whether the BJP leadership is able to put a restrain on the two leaders or if they would continue to wash the dirty linen in public.
Electoral compulsions
In an example of how compulsion of facing the electorate dictates the policies and the decisions, the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has recently proclaimed that eight new government colleges would be opened in different parts of the state while existing seven would be upgraded. This seemingly innocuous decision should be viewed in light of an earlier resolve of the government that no new government colleges would be opened in the state. This resolve of the newly sworn-in BJP government had received widespread appreciation especially after the outgoing Congress government had opened as many as 26 new colleges just ahead of the assembly elections of 2017. Since these colleges were operating in rented buildings the new BJP government at that time had decided not to open new colleges in the state and minister Dhan Singh Rawat had even gone ahead to declare that colleges with low enrolments would be closed. However this commitment went up in smoke when the pressure started building up for the decisive electoral battle of 2022.
Rank Rancour
A strict system of hierarchy in the armed forces is necessary to maintain order during an arduous time such as war and for ensuring efficiency during peacetime. The soldiers become so accustomed to adhere to the structure of hierarchy that even after superannuation they follow the system of rank assiduously and any deviation from the set protocols irritates them. Such irritation was manifested in the recent resignation of an officer who was heading a board meant for the welfare of ex-servicemen in the state. It is learnt that this officer who is a retired brigadier took offence to the tone and tenor of the minister concerned. Since the minister himself was once a Sepoy in the army his brusque mannerism offended the officer who thought it prudent to put his papers instead of facing the ignominy of getting ordered by someone who in the military hierarchy was much junior to him.
