Hindustan Times
Bahuguna’s wit Vs Rawat’s writ
Uttrakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna may be in the thick of controversies but he has certainly not lost his wit, something that he looks to have inherited from his late father HN Bahuguna.
I remember meeting him once at the beginning of my career. He had played on the word ‘Iron’.
“Are you an iron girl; don’t look like one.”
Bombarded by unwarranted comments by an irrepressible Harish Rawat, who has not as yet laid to rest the banner of revolt against Bahuguna, the latter has opted for either reconciliation or silence.
Perhaps Bahuguna has left the task of combating Rawat to senior Congress leader Satpal Maharaj.
Rawat has been livid ever since party high command preferred Bahuguna over him for the CM’s post and has kept upping the ante.
However, what surprises all is the silence of the high command even after he threw a direct challenge. Perhaps the Congress leadership doesn’t want to rock the Uttarakhand boat. Rawat has support of couple of MLAs who can be ready to even risk their membership.
Uttarakhand is the only state after Manipur where Congress could form the government after recent elections in five states. Short of requisite strength, it had to borrow support of Independents and BSP legislators.
But going is getting tougher for Bahuguna in the hill state, where development is major concern.
With no semblance of political stability, a big question mark hangs over his future.
The new CM, however, is taking things in his stride. Sometimes his feelings get reflected in his impromptu fun-filled statements.
In an informal meeting at his sprawling bungalow in Doon, Bahuguna said, “My focus is on governance.”
On Rawat’s statements like ” Whosoever be the chief minister, it is my writ that would run large in the state”, Bahuguna said the party high command was there to take note. “I am focusing on work. There are others to take care of that.”
Earlier at a public meeting he had said that he also needed to pick up some fighting skills to trounce his opponent. ”
But I don’t want to use my legs and hands, only mental skills” Bahuguna had said.
His trusted lieutenants insist that Bahuguna is not bothered how long he would remain the chief minister. It’s quality not quantity, they say.
Bahuguna has shifted to the CM’s bungalow, considered jinxed by many, without any fear of losing the chair. It is generally believed that CM’s do not last long after occupying the house. It happened with Romesh Pokhriyal who lost the chair four months after moving in. The bungalow is big enough to accommodate half a dozen ministers, has beautiful lawns, swimming pool and a billiard room.
Talking about the ongoing save Ganga movement and threat to hydro power projects, Bahuguna said on a lighter note, “Uttarakhand would become a saint state instead of dev bhumi with Swamy Vijayanand leading bhajans and not development of the state.”
The state government had suspended work on two hydro-electric projects -Pala Maneri(480 MW) and Bhaironghat ( 381MW) on the Ganga –in 2008 after investing Rs 200 crore under pressure from saints and environmentalist, who had cited two reasons – they will disturb the eco system and hurt religious sentiments. NTPC had also stopped work on Lohari Nopala (500MW).
Bahuguna plans to visit Himachal Pradesh to resolve some power projects related issues. Earlier, he had taken the initiative to meet UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to settle pending issues. The work on Haridwar highway, it is claimed , has picked up since.
Interestingly, Bahuguna has already visited Haridwar, Rawat’s stronghold and plans to visit it again shortly. The Congress had lost eight of 11 seats here.
Bahuguna has reasons to go slow on reshuffling of the bureaucracy. However, he said he had told them to match his pace.
“How can they continue to remain neutral when I am running in third gear,” Bahuguna said.
According to him, his government priorities would eventually improve the financial health of the state.
“How can there be development without funds,” he said.
Bahuguna, who right now is an MP, did not mention about his plans on winning an assembly seat within six months in an atmosphere of political uncertainty.
He may believe silence is golden, many of his ministers think otherwise. They too are watching which way the wind would blow. As it is, Rawat is not the only claimant, there are half a dozen waiting in the queue.
(5 votes, average: 2.4 out of 5)
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Sumit Bose Reply:
March 10th, 2013 at 11:10 pm
@Rajesh, this worm is a “ghatiyya Taqqiyya” #1. This space about 18 months ago would be choc-o-block with others of his level spewing venom against Hindus (quoting discarded manu’s smirti) and eulogizing with utter lies the “religion of peace”. Mercifully, the “cowardly” Hindus have stepped in and now we have those Zakir Naik “inspired” spin-masters beat a hasty retreat when slapped with translations from the verses and from Bukhari’s collection. Now even the fig-leaf of “context” has been blown away conclusively.
As Hindu’s had to pay Jizyia during the brutal misrule of the Slave dynasty scoundrels and later from Aurangzeb’s time, there is a very important narrative that this Taqqiyya has skillfully masked, there were huge mass conversions taking place, not just because of the punitive taxation on Hindus, but because Hindus themselves could legally absolve repayment to any person, just on becoming a Muslim and leveling blasphemy charges and the creditor would be lucky to save his skin by “honouring himself by accepting Islam”.
The only reprieve that Indians got was during the 52 years of Akbar, 22 years of Jahangir and 32 years of Shah Jahan, once Aurangzeb ascended the throne, it was “open season” on Hindus once again.
So, now that these Indian converts are able to draw benefits from Modi’s formula of 35% of revenue for govt expenditure and 65% for development, the economical gains accrued renders the Indian converts favourably disposed to Modi. The Kashmir situation is so similiar, the “insurgey” had died a natural death by 2008, it was revived by paying “stone throwers” with counterfiet indian currency routed through Nepal.Once the money trail dies out, most people want to live in peace, inspite of the invocations of violence to kuffurs.
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Mail Me Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 12:40 am
Excellent observation, Sumit.
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HINDU SAMURAI Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 11:15 am
well said dadabhai! well said! zia is a very p00r quality taqqiya master!!
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shenoybv Reply:
March 19th, 2013 at 7:54 pm
V.S. Naipaul, himself a Brahmin whose ancestors had settled abroad centuries ago, gained international celebrity status when he wrote the book, Wounded Civilisation portraying “Hindu India” as a stupid, idiotic country ruled by his own jatwalas.
While he gained name and fame from his literary achievements, his jatwalas in India became furious and denounced him as a third rate writer because he honestly condemned Brahmins as topclass frauds. This made the Brahmin in Naipaul to mellow and realise as he grew old that if he continued jabbing at his jatwalas the “Jews of India” would prevail over Jewish-controlled Nobel Foundation to deny him the Nobel prize. The Brahmin in Naipaul prevailed and he started praising the Brahmins. By then it was too late. Naipaul got the award after he started praising Brahmins. The Brahmin in him killed the genius in him.
Beef-eating Brahmin: We are reproducing a passage from his book, Wounded Civilisation, in which he exposed the Brahmin hypocrisy and dwelt on the strong anti-Brahmin fury prevailing in India. Naipaul was impressed with the novel of a fellow Karnataka Brahmin writer who too in his younger days married a Christian girl, ate beef, sang Lohia lullabies and the Brahmin media boosted him sky-high and hailed him as “socialist savant”.
Topclass frauds: Soon the Brahmin in him prevailed and turned him into a “Socialist Brahmin” who is more dangerous than a “Sacred Brahmin”. (Read our book, Socialist Brahmin vs. Sacred Brahmin,
His Kannada book, Samskara, Naipaul says, very beautifully portrays the “Brahminic barbarity” and the Brahmins as topclass frauds.
The problem with the Brahmin is very serious. No Brahmin has so far been able to get over this dotage — the victim of his own sick society.
During his younger days the Brahmin is fired by the youthful idealism and he turns a marxist, naxalite, maoist, anarchist, atheist and what not. That is how M.N. Roy, the Bengali Brahmin, became founder of the Indian Communist Party and advocated wholesale Hindu conversion to Islam to liberate India from Brahminism
S.A. Dange, Chairman of the Communist Party, as he grew old came to the conclusion that “all the wisdom of Karl Marx came from the Vedanta”, for which he was expelled from the party itself. The Marathi Brahmin died a vedantist.
Look at the mischievous Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer who fell in love with Dalits and successfully duped both Dalits and Muslims but continued to mouth socialist slogans.
The “famous” E.M.S. Namboodiripad died as an orthodox marxist Brahmin (: Cheated Dalits, BCs, Muslims & destroyed Kerala”).
Jawaharlal Nehru, the fire-eating socialist, out of love for his Kashmiri Brahmins, fought a war with Pakistan for the sake of his jatwalas and permanently put the Himalayan state in thrishanku swarga —despite the UN verdict that Kashmir is a “disputed territory”.
Caste above the country: We have not came across one Brahmin who has been honest with his conscience because the sanskara does not permit him to go against his jati. This sanskara is hanging right over his head like a dagger and throughout he lives with this fear. That is why to him his caste is greater than the country. Show us one Brahmin who has gone against the sanskara. This
is the tragic story of a Brahmin which Naipaul relates here
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Aamer Saeed Reply:
April 6th, 2013 at 1:44 pm
MY GOD
what the hell is wrong with you man.
Relax the F&^k up.
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