Bhopal: Straight Drive; Political Chameleons

A chameleon is known for changing hues for specific reasons but it unnecessarily gets a bad name in the political field. This time, it’s state BJP president VD Sharma who is talking of those chameleons who changed colours during civic bodies polls and the BJP had to face defeat in several cities including his home district Morena. A party leader said if the political chameleons were the reason behind the party’s defeat and they were identified now why party leadership should tolerate their presence in the organisation. Let’s hope chameleons are shown the door before 2023 legislative assembly elections.

POST-RETIREMENT BENEFITS

An IAS officer who settled in Delhi post-retirement is still connected with the state of his home cadre i.e. Madhya Pradesh. How? There are certain outsourced employees of a particular department who are working at the retired officer’s bungalow. Needless to mention, from where they are getting their remuneration. Insiders of the power corridor say this retired IAS officer is not alone in the list. There are several others too. It’s for them that a good number of employees are engaged by the department. This is called post-retirement benefits at the expenses of the state exchequer.

HEADS WILL ROLL

Bureaucracy is under scanner particularly in those regions where the ruling party faced humiliating defeat in civic bodies polls particularly Gwalior-Chambal and Vindhya regions. It’s in Gwalior-Chambal where a naib-tehsildar was trapped by Lokayukta, while he was demanding Rs 3 lakh from a sarpanch to give him the certificate of victory. In the same region, an additional district magistrate was found lecturing public representatives how democracy and voting had no meaning. Bureaucracy ruled the civic bodies in the past two years and now a section of party leaders is blaming such bureaucrats for the party’s defeat.

COSTLY CORN COB?

Mantri ji stopped roadside to have a roasted corn cob from a vendor on the way home but he felt the price of a corn cob was too high. That’s Rs 15 per piece. Mantri ji gave a lecture on how he had corn cob free in his home district Mandala and here it was being sold at a much higher rate. The vendor appeared surprised and looked at Mantri ji to know if he was joking or was serious. He couldn’t figure it out and said he was asking for the actual price. Mantri ji is the same who had been once suspended from the party over the MPLAD scam.

‘BHAI-BHATEEJAVAD’

Mantri ji decided not to listen to the party that all the leaders were supposed to keep away from Bhai Bhateejavad. Since he originally comes from the Congress having joined BJP two years back he canvassed for brother and the latter’s son and daughter-in-law. Brother got elected unopposed as a member but his son lost the zila panchayat polls in Bundelkhand. Though no one is going to challenge Mantri ji’s brother candidature for the post of zila panchayat president, he is not sure about his party’s stand. Hence, he brought all the ministers in a meeting to approve his brother’s candidature. Who will not appreciate Mantri ji’s Bhaivad?

WHO ARE OFFICERS?

There is an exercise going on in bureaucrats' circles to identify those IAS officers who came in the way of early execution of the Ken-Betwa link project. In fact, senior BJP leader Uma Bharti has made it public that when she was union minister she sent her secretary in 2017 to Madhya Pradesh to talk to the government for the project in light of the Supreme Court’s order to expedite the work on the project. Her secretary later said that two influential officers wouldn’t allow the project to be translated into reality.