Reporters’ Diary: No votes, no iftar

No votes, no iftar

The impact of the Lok Sabha elections is still being felt in political circles in Uttar Pradesh and it is the iftar parties that have been the worst hit. Not only has the number of iftar parties dwindled this year, even the excitement around these events has gone missing. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav maintained the tradition by hosting an iftar at his official residence but he did not bother to mingle with the rank and file and restricted himself to a select group of politician and clerics.

The Samajwadi Party which is known to host one of the biggest and best attended iftars in the state did not host one this year. The SP excused itself from hosting the iftar saying that Mulayam Singh Yadav was busy with the Parliament session but insiders said that the party leadership was upset with Muslims who had not supported it during elections.

The Congress did host an iftar dinner but the party is facing a financial crisis so the event was extremely low-key. The Bahujan Samaj Party leaders also gave their iftar parties a miss this year. The BJP, in any case, is never known to host iftar parties. A journalist who regularly attends the political iftar events, meanwhile, quipped, “Just because the secular parties could not win elections, they are blaming Muslims and cutting down on iftar parties. This is not fair because we get deprived of kebabs and biryanis for no fault of ours.”

Day care plea

Newly-elected BJP MP Poonam Mahajan has written a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker to start a day care centre in Parliament for the MPs and staff. The working mothers find it very difficult to take care of their kids when they come to attend sessions in Parliament. She has specifically written about women MPs who leave their kids behind either in their hometowns or at the hostels and attend the proceedings in Parliament.

A few years back the Maharashtra government had agreed to a similar demand and made a provision in the urban development rules to have crèches in every office, private as well as the government. The then secretary of the urban development department issued a government order in this regard and addressed a press conference. However, the decision was criticised by a section of the media and the government withdrew it. Hopefully, history will not be repeated.

Up in the smoke

A month before every Union Budget, speculation is rife about how much the price of cigarettes will go up by. But it takes at least two-three weeks when the actual, post-Budget, increased MRP begins to appear on the cigarette packets. And this is the time when a large section of wholesalers make a killing by hoarding stocks and selling at increased prices. While this year cigarette hoarding started much before the Budget, even three weeks after the Union Budget was tabled in Parliament, the hoarding of cigarettes continues in Delhi. A packet of cigarette that costs Rs 85 is being sold at an escalated cost of Rs 105-110 in many areas of the city. Certain cigarette brands are not available in the market purportedly due to massive hoarding of these costly products.

Asked why the cigarette companies were not issuing clarification, a health ministry official said this would amount to violation of rules as they cannot put any advertisement about any tobacco product. Now wait and watch. Can the government come out with a clarification so that smokers are not forced to
buy black-marketed packs?

Agrawal vs Agrawal

The ongoing alleged shadow boxing between Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and his friend-turned-political rival, Chhattisgarh agriculture minister Brij Mohan Agrawal, has led to a bizarre battle. Apparently seething with dissension over undermining his stature in the Raman Cabinet, Mr Agrawal has reportedly launched a “fight to finish” battle against the chief minister, who once regarded him as his troubleshooter. Relations between the two leaders seemed to have strained when during his last tenure, Mr Singh shelved the plan to procure bicycles from private agencies to distribute them free of cost to girl students and then decided to give money to the beneficiaries to purchase bicycles of their choice. Apparently peeved over the decision, Mr Agrawal, who had then held the portfolio of primary education, had hit back by openly alleging corruption in the finance ministry, held by Mr Singh.

The rivalry spilled over to the current tenure after Mr Singh clipped Mr Agrawal’s wings by allocating him an inconsequential portfolio like agriculture.
Barely into seven months in power in the state, the BJP faced embarrassment when documents revealing alleged irregularities by two of the chief minister’s loyalists were leaked to the media. While Assembly Speaker Gouri Shankar Agrawal faced charges of grabbing the prime government land, the labour department, held by state health minister Amar Agrawal, is currently embroiled in a controversy following allegations of irregularities in implementation of welfare schemes.

The chief minister’s close confidants suspect Mr Brij Mohan Agrawal’s hand in the leakages. As the battle between chief minister and his agriculture minister rages, the other two Agrawals, if sources close to them are to be believed, were upset with Mr Brij Mohan Agrawal for “unnecessarily dragging them into the scene” and thus making it an “Agrawal vs Agrawal” fight. Politics makes strange bedfellows and divides families too.