The foreign policy has always been marked by consistency, continuity and coherence irrespective of the party in power right since independence but it is for the first time that these virtues have been sacrificed .
Patna : Conspiracy theorists had a field day when BJP party president Amit Shah was stranded in a lift at the VIP state guest house opposite Raj Bhawan in Patna on Thursday night.
Shah could extricate himself from the lift only with the help of party workers who had to break it open with help of iron rods and car tools; even kitchen utensils of the guest house came into play to prise open the contraption.
However, BJP’s state president Mangal Pandey and former union minister and party MP C P Thakur suspect foul play in the incident and a well-orchestrated attempt to embarrass Shah who enjoys ‘z’ plus security cover.
The two leaders pointed out that Shah was in the lift for 40 minutes and neither the lift operator nor any staff of the guest house was close by when the lift got stranded.
The incident happened at 11.30 PM on Thursday night after Shah and senior party leaders reached the state guest house; earlier in the day they had been reviewing preparations for the state elections. Shah had been allotted a room on the first floor of the guest house.
Bigar Principal Secretary Shishir Sinha, in turn, did not help matters by stating that the lift got stranded as it was carrying excess weight. This view was reinforced by State RJD president Lalu Prasad. He said, ‘‘The lift is not meant for fat people like Amit Shah.” Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy was quick to refute the claim and pointed out that the lift was capable of accommodating six people with a cumulative weight of 340 kg. Whatever the intrinsic merits of the claim, there was a general concurrence that since Shah is a VIP, a liftman should have been present on the premises.
Incidentally, the lift was installed only last week in the double storey state guest house which used to function as the CM’s residence until 1975. Bihar’s water sources minister and government spokesman VIjay Kumar Chaudhury debunked charges of conspiracy and said the BJP leaders should have avoided overloading the lift. Till Friday evening, the lift had not been repaired.
