Madhya Pradesh Political Punch: Ministers’ Anger, Understanding Narmada, Internal Wrangling & More

Ministers’ anger

Two women ministers in the state have made a wry face these days. They feel the departments they are heading are not listening to them. Nor have they any say in the constituencies they are representing. One of the ministers has asked the collector of her constituency several times to do some work, but her work remains unaccomplished. The collector may have agreed to do the work in the minister’s presence, yet the officer has fallen short of showing any positive sign of doing the work. Similarly, the minister is unable to get any work done in her department, too.

The situation has come to such a pass that whenever she is in the state capital, the officers keep away from meeting her. The other minister is facing the same situation as her counterpart. But because she is more flamboyant than her colleague, she pulls up the officers, but she cannot get any development work done through them in her constituency. Both are angry with a senior minister. They think it is because of the senior minister that their orders are not carried out. One of the ministers poured out her pains before the head of state.

Soft corner

A BJP leader and his Congress counterpart, once regarded as sworn enemies, have begun to show a soft corner towards each other. After a recent incident, the Congress leader has started liking the BJP leader. In an interview the Congress leader blamed the former chief minister of the party for the fall of the government. After the interview, the Congress leaders who had defected to the BJP were happy.

Afterwards, when the Congress leader was asked to comment on ‘Pariwarbad’ (familism) in an election linked with a cricket association, this leader came in support of his BJP counterpart. Saying familism is everywhere the Congress leader avoided making any comments on the BJP leader. There are reports that both the leaders got closer to each other during the Lok Sabha election. This is the reason that the chasm between them has reduced.

Minister in trouble

A powerful cabinet minister from the state capital is up the creek these days because of his alleged friendliness with a criminal. The minister’s videos with the man went viral on social media. The minister’s supporters tried to settle the dust raised by the videos. They began to post the videos of three other ruling party leaders with the person who encroached upon several hectares belonging to the government.

The man also courted many other controversies. The videos of the man with the leaders also reached the top bosses of the ruling dispensation. In these videos, many people have seen the true colours of these leaders who speak about probity in public life. Now, such people are waiting to see how the ruling party acts against these leaders who befriended the alleged crook. 

Understanding Narmada

The name of a minister is discussed these days. He has penned a book on the Narmada. The RSS chief will release the book. The minister was in the Central Government, but the party leadership brought him to the state to fight the assembly election that he won, and he became a minister. Yet, he did not stop. He toured the state to understand the Narmada and to know the origin of the rivers that roll through the state. Everyone appreciated the minister’s efforts. He says had the leadership not sent him back to the state, he would have never known the rivers. Only a few know once he had tried to reach the end of the Narmada – though he could not finish the journey.

Internal wrangling

Internal squabbling has sapped the foundation of the grand old party. Despite being out of power for over two decades, there seems to be no end in sight to the in-house wrangling. Its two leaders handling the media cell recently came face to face over a petty issue. The dispute between them was whether a press conference on the new GST slab would be held or not.

The media cell head was for the press conference, and the other person objected to it, saying because the national leaders had already spoken about the topic, there cannot be any further discussion over the issue. But as the press conference was fixed, instead of talking about the GST, other issues were discussed to complete the formality and save their faces.

Soon after the event, the leader who vouched for the press conference met the MPCC president with his supporters and offered to quit. The MPCC chief, however, tore the resignation letter and advised the media cell head to work for the party. After the incident, the media cell has been divided into three groups. One is with its head, and the other is with the leader opposed to him, while the third group is neutral. 

Staging a comeback!

A senior leader of the ruling party was a minister with clout in the government as well as in the organisation. He used to hog the media headlines for his words and deeds. But when he lost the election, many in the corridors of power had written him off his political career. Perhaps, they failed to appreciate the fact that it was not easy to dismiss a politician.

Though he was in oblivion for a few days after the poll defeat, he began to work for the organisation and meet the national leaders. He was soon returned to his normal self stealing media headlines. In the process for the election to the BJP’s state unit president, his name was doing the rounds for the post. The party elected another person to the coveted position yet was down but not out.

A few photographs of the former minister, with two senior leaders of the organisation holding a closed-door meeting at his residence, recently went viral. The photographs again sparked speculations that his name might be considered for an important position in the party. If everything goes well, the former minister is set to return to mainstream politics. The former Chancellor of Germany Otto Von Bismarck rightly said, “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.”