regional buzz
Keeping tabs on power politics in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and J&K
When principals jostled for plates during lunch
For chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s interaction with 2,600 school teachers last week, the venue was chosen to be Ludhiana for the city has one of the largest resorts in the state with the capacity to accommodate 3,000 persons at one time. But the arrangements fell short. The media was apparently not invited because there were not enough chairs. Neither was the number of plates arranged to serve food to teachers and other guests enough. After the meeting got over, an embarrassing video of school teachers and principals jostling for plates during lunch went viral on social media.
All eyes on Jakhar’s nephew now
After former Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar quit the Congress, all eyes are on his nephew and Abohar MLA Sandeep Jakhar’s new next move. Sandeep, one of the two Congress MLAs in Malwa region, has endorsed the stance taken by his uncle who took shots at several party leaders while making the announcement. “Yesterday @sunilkjakhar spoke from the heart. Somewhere deep down his heart still beats for the congress party. Hope the party will ‘actually’ listen to what he said and ponder over it. It is a fight for the existence of the party,” he tweeted along with a video of the veteran leader’s statement on social media.
DSR boost for Punjab CM’s village Satouj
Chief minister Bhawant Mann’s native village, Satouj, is getting a preference for the special scheme announced by him for direct seeding of rice for paddy sowing. On Sunday, senior officers of the agriculture department and scientists from Punjab agricultural university reached Satouj to hold a daylong camp to train the farmers about the new technique. Mann has given call to the state farmers to adopt this method to conserve subsoil water. Agriculture department joint director JPS Grewal and PAU’s agronomy department head Makhan Singh Bhullar were in the village along with other officers and scientists. Satouj residents came out in large number to get trained. Mann’s mother Harpal Kaur and sister Manpreet Kaur were among them.
At SGPC meet, scribes kept at bay
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) allowed all the people, including leaders of various Akali factions, Sikh organisations, activists, and personnel of Punjab Police, security and intelligence agencies, to enter the Teja Singh Samundri Hall to attend the “Panthic gathering” on the issue of release of Sikh prisoners. The only section which was denied entry was the media. All the staff members of SGPC’s public relations department were specially deputed at all entry points to keep the scribes at bay. The SGPC called this meeting to win over its critics but invited criticism by banning the media.
INLD patriarch gets his Class 10, 12 marksheets
Congratulations poured in from politicians and celebrities for former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, 87, when the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) patriarch received his 10th and 12th Class marksheets from the state education board last week. After the news was broken via the social media platforms, celebrations broke out in the INLD rank and file. In a tweet, former J&K CM Omar Abdullah congratulated Chautala saying, “A person is never too old to learn.” Chautala appeared in the Class 10 exam in 2019 when he was lodged in Tihar jail, serving sentence in the teachers’ recruitment scam. However, he could not appear in the English paper. He got a compartment in English and his Class 12 result was not declared. Chautala appeared for his English compartment exam in August 2021 and scored 88%. Finally, he received marksheets from the education board. The publicity this development generated also boosted the morale of the INLD.
Sulking Bishnoi skips Cong Chintan Shivir
Congress MLA from Adampur, Kuldeep Bishnoi, seems to have yet again joined the ranks of dissenters in the party. After being denied the chair of Haryana Congress president, Bishnoi had expressed his annoyance on social media and even sought answers from Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi. He probably did not get any. The son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal who had snapped ties with the Congress more than a decade ago to form his own outfit only to join the Congress a few years ago did not attend the Congress Chintan Shivir in Udaipur. His Twitter handle bore testimony to the fact that on Sunday, the concluding day of the Shivir, Bishnoi was touring his assembly constituency, Adampur, in Hisar. He even retweeted a tweet by a journalist which said that the three-day shivir did not answer two questions. First, who will lead the party and how will the party get votes.
Varsity radio jingle fails to strike the right note
A recent radio jingle about admissions at the Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts, Rohtak, is being talked about a lot in official circles. The on-air radio advertisement features a voiceover from the new Vice-Chancellor of the varsity, Gajendra Chauhan, a television performer himself. In a short voice clip, Chauhan is heard announcing in a rather abrupt and mechanical manner that admissions to the university are now open. The word is that such a machine-like voiceover was not expected from a television artiste like Chauhan and for an institution which specialises in performing arts.
Chugh’s barb at Cong
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh misses no chance to attack Congress. During his recent visit to Himachal Pradesh, Chugh launched a stinging attack on the grand old party over its ongoing Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan. Calling it “Chinta Shiver for the Gandhi family”, Chugh said that Congress leaders have gathered only to find ways to again project its “tired” leader as the prime ministerial candidate. “Whatever they do, the Congress is now like an expired injection that has lost its efficacy,” he claimed.
Anurag’s art of dodging queries
Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Singh Thakur always tries to dodge questions about returning to state politics. Thakur, who was in Chamba the other day, was asked this question, but he said some things should be left to the fate. “Congress and AAP seem to have become my well-wishers and have been projecting me as the CM face,” he quipped.