Reporters' diary: CM accused of plagiarism

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is currently facing a strange kind of charge, hilarious in nature, which may rather yield dividends for him, at least politically. Mr Chouhan, known as a “compulsive orator” for his unique skill in holding his audiences under a spell with his uninterrupted but animated speeches, has left his officials amused when he took a leaf from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s famous one-liner “Na khaunga, na khane dunga (Neither will I indulge in corruption, nor allow others to resort to)”, to exhort them to pull up their shocks to deliver while reviewing implementation of various welfare schemes in the state through a video-conference with the district-level officers in Bhopal on November 24.

In an apparent call to the state government officers to shed their laidback attitude and improve work culture, the chief minister hinted that he would move around the state to review progress of all schemes, small or big. “Na main baithunga, na kissi ko baithne dunga (Neither will I rest, nor permit others to relax)”, he quipped, prompting the officers participating in the conference to take note of the analogy. The one-liner has created a buzz in political circles in the state, bringing his both admirers and adversaries on the same page to hurl charges of plagiarising the PM’s script in this regard, against him. “It is difficult to say if the terminology was coined by him as a show of loyalty for the PM, but there is no dispute to the fact that he plagiarised the PM’s script”, a senior ruling BJP leader here quipped. “Of course, the charge of plagiarism levelled against him may, ultimately, turn out to be rewarding, at least politically, for him,” he added.

Heart specialist Shah
BJP president Amit Shah knows it quite well how to strike a chord with the heterogeneous crowd gathered at a public rally. After snubbing Odisha chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik in no uncertain terms in the party’s Jana Jagaran Samavesh on Friday in Bhubaneswar to assuage the angry feeling of hardcore party activists, he tried to touch the hearts of the youths. Mr Shah said Mr Patnaik does not understand the heart of youths and hence he has done little in his 17 years of rule to provide them jobs in their home state, as a result of which they are going to cities like Surat, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

“I’m deeply saddened that the young men of Odisha are migrating to cities like Surat, Mumbai and Hyderabad to earn their livelihood, leaving behind their old parents and wives. I understand what could be going on in the minds of these young men and women who are forced to remain separated from each for months only for the sake of survival. Mr Patnaik has failed to understand this hard reality for which he has done little to provide jobs to youths here,” he said with a mischievous smile as the cloud cheered in applause. Mission accomplished, the BJP president then switched over to regular exercise: “Bashing Rahul Baba (Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi)”.