Bidar rail track: And the credit goes to...
How two opposing parties contrasted — in claiming undue credit or giving it where it was rightly due — was not lost on many when the Prime Minister flagged off the 100-km Bidar-Kalaburgi rail line amidst fanfare recently.
This was a dream project to connect the backward region. Planned in 1994, it was expected to be ready in 2005, but had started limping. It gathered steam when Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Bidar district, became the Railway Minister. Cut to a project-related event held some four years back in the small town of Humnabad, which lies midway on the route. An enthusiastic Congress leader proclaimed on the dais that Mr. Kharge was responsible for the Bidar-Hyderabad intercity express. Mr. Kharge interrupted him to correct him: “I did not start the intercity express. The credit should go to Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress, who held the railway portfolio before me and approved the train,” he said.
At its high-profile inaugural event last week, all senior BJP leaders, including B.S. Yeddyurappa, Shivamogga MP, and Bhagwant Khuba, Bidar MP, were there but not Mr. Kharge, a popular leader from the region.
Mr. Kharge told journalists in Kalaburgi that neither the Railway Ministry nor the Prime Minister’s Office had invited him or Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to the event. He regretted that the NDA government was claiming all credit, although the State government had borne ₹771 crore or half of the cost of the line. As for the Central share, the then UPA government had contributed two-thirds of the amount.
Later, Mr. Khuba claimed that the Centre had released ₹770 crore for the project but his omissions were glaring.
Buffalo to the rescue
Name it and the 80-year-old Kannada film industry can claim to have a song for the occasion. Often, those clued into it have taken recourse to film songs to jest or to make a point. Politicians included.
Recently, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly K.B. Koliwad, under fire for the extravagant spending on the Vidhana Soudha’s diamond jubilee, also took ‘refuge’ under a 1970s hit number to fend off charges of misappropriation during the event.
When reporters asked him about the alleged misuse of funds meant for the diamond jubilee, Mr. Koliwad cited the popular buffalo ride song of Rajkumar’s to say everything was above board and he was unflustered by detractors.
He said: Yaare koogadali, yaare horadali, ninna nemmadige bhangavilla.
Mr. Koliwad did not forget to invoke Mahatma Gandhi in self-defence. “The society has not spared even Gandhi. He had to face allegations in public life. Why should I worry about these allegations. Truth will be out one day.”
Think ‘Rajini’
for safe buses
There aren’t many old timers in Bengaluru who don’t know that Tamil superstar Rajinikant was a conductor with the erstwhile Bangalore Transport Service. Or that he made the old route no. 10A that plied between Srinagar and Majestic so famous in the late ‘60s. The other day, newly appointed Transport Minister H.M. Revanna, who was pulling up transport staff for negligence after a young commuter lost a leg, said they should learn a few things from the star conductor of yesteryear.
The Minister recalled that Rajini was popular for being thoughtful and friendly towards commuters and could still be a model for today’s conductors. “I used to commute on 10A from Hanumanthanagar to Government College. Rajinikanth [the screen name that the film star adopted later] was the conductor. Everyone wanted to board 10A just because its conductor was courteous, friendly and entertaining. He should be a model for the present generation of conductors,” said the Minister, but not before cautioning the staff of stringent action for negligence.
Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
MURALIDHARA KHAJANE
