Madhya Pradesh Political Punch: Angry Minister; Fear Of Wife; Rare Gesture & More

Angry minister

The suspension of an officer has angered a minister. The officer is close to the minister. The government suspended him after a bus accident in Bhopal. The minister posted him in the state capital as well as in his hometown and spared no effort to stop the suspension. He had met the Bade Sahib to cancel the order.

The Bade Sahib, however, told the minister he could not help him. The Bade Sahib knew the minister would come in the way of the officer’s suspension. A commissioner issued the suspension order. The purpose of the Bade Sahib was to keep the minister out of the way. But the minister did not give up and pleaded with the chief minister to reinstate the officer. The CM has yet to accede to his request.

Fear of wife

A minister's fear of his wife recently came to light. The minister embroiled in a controversy was giving his clarifications over the issue at a press conference. The minister initially spoke to all journalists. He then began to interact with the reporters from TV channels. His wife called during the conversation. She wanted to know the reasons for interacting with each TV channel separately.

She said, “There is no need to have one-to-one dialogue with them." She advised the minister to return to the hometown. He immediately stopped interacting with media and left for his hometown. The minister received a dressing-down from his wife for an irresponsible remark. His wife is planning to do damage control.

Shock and joy

The sudden announcement of a ceasefire amid a war-like situation between India and Pakistan shocked a BJP leader. The leader, also a legislator from a constituency in the state capital, planned several events in his borough. He generally challenges Pakistan. But the sudden ceasefire forced him to cancel all events. He wanted to use the war-like situation to gain popularity among his electorate.

He went into silence mode for two days after the announcement of the ceasefire. A few journalists wanted to meet him for a reaction to the ceasefire. But silence was his response. The party’s decision to arrange some events for teaching a lesson to Pakistan delighted him.

The legislator has a problem. Bashing Pakistan and the people of a particular community is his USP. He has again got an opportunity to hurl invectives at Pakistan after two days of calm. But people cannot see him in his old form after the ceasefire.

Rare gesture

The political atmosphere in Madhya Pradesh is still more amiable than in many other states across the country. There is hostility between the ruling party and the opposition. But there are occasions when they forget this enmity. Such a friendly atmosphere pervaded in the BJP office. The party paid tribute to a departed leader.

He was a fiery spokesperson for the BJP. Before joining the BJP, the spokesperson was working for the Congress. He was so aggressive that the opposition members were scared of him. Yet two Congress spokespersons reached the BJP office to pay tribute to the departed leader. Both openly said they were scared of his way of attacking the opposition.

They said the leader had been so well informed that it was difficult to argue with him. On an earlier occasion, the head of the Congress’s media cell attended the condolence meeting held to pay tribute to another leader. Everyone is appreciating this kind of courtesy, despite political differences, between the two arch political rivals.

Film screening

A senior leader of the Congress has come up with a plan to maintain influence over the party workers. He connects himself with the party workers by showing films made on any issue relating to the society. He recently screened a film in Bhopal.

On an earlier occasion, he arranged another film screening. He invited the leaders of the Congress as well as of the BJP to it. The comments of the producer of the recently screened film deeply hurt a particular community. The film producer had to face the public anger across the state. The film shown recently also entailed public anger.

The film producer faced the same public anger as he had to confront after the earlier film show. Such a film show has angered a leader of the Congress. The leader feels these shows are damaging the Congress, because the film producer criticises the particular community.

Minister’s agony

The agony of the legislators and leaders of the ruling party is visible. They are unable to get any work done through the government. They, however, do not pour out their pains in public. But the anguish of a woman minister was manifest in her words.

She has some work, related to her constituency, in a department, which the head of state directly controls. The minister says she does not know who she should talk to. Everyone passes on the responsibility to others. Even after becoming a minister, she could not do much work for her constituency.

Many people come from the minister’s hometown to get their work done and corner the minister when she fails to do it. The minister feels she may face public ire in the next election. She, somehow, wants to get the work done. But there is a problem: a few BJP leaders dislike her. It is they who often create trouble for her.