An apt expectation
It’s quite common that the electorate would have many expectations from the contestants, particularly those from the party in power, in any election, but Union Minister for Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar thought the other way round recently, and said he too has an expectation from the electorate in the elections to the two MLC seats in the State.
Delivering a talk on the role of graduates at a meeting organised by BJP, he said the problem of invalid votes became a thing of the past with the introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs). However, the election to Graduates’ constituencies in the Legislative Council would have only graduates as the electorate but, unfortunately, the election held with physical ballot papers would have invalid votes. It’s an issue that reflects on graduates badly. “That’s why I expect from the electorate for the March 14 polling that they give no scope for any invalid vote by registering their preference properly,” Mr. Javadekar said.
Communication gap
There appears to be a huge communication gap between the Central government and opposition leaders of Telangana. Opposition parties, BJP in particular, upped their ante against the government for its alleged failures in the implementation of Central schemes. The BJP was critical of the State’s ‘inaction’ that led to its much-publicised ITIR loss.
Criticism by the opposition parties notwithstanding, several senior secretaries of the Union government praised the State in leading the others in the implementation of Central schemes. The latest in the block is Union Housing and Urban Affairs secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, who showered praises on the TS government for effectively implementing schemes like PM Street Vendors’ Atma Nirbhar Nidhi and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.
The Union secretary’s assertion raised questions on whether there is truth in the opposition’s criticism indicating that the latter should make charges with sufficient proof.
KTR perfecting an art
Minister K.T. Rama Rao is perfecting the art of giving political lectures these days. The tech-savvy politician took a jibe at the BJP for its charges against the TRS government at a meeting of the TRS students’ wing the other day.
He said while students were pursuing their education in universities like Osmania and Kakatiya, the BJP leaders were mastering the art of “lies and falsehood” from the WhatsApp university. The comment comes barely two days after he taunted the BJP with his phrase “NDA meaning no details available, not the national democratic alliance” ruling at the Centre.
Mr. Rama Rao made sarcastic reference to the promises made by the BJP like creation of 2 crore jobs a year and deposition of ₹15 lakh each in the accounts of the common man. He said he could not take the challenge by BJP’s N. Ramachandra Rao for an open debate on the jobs provided since the TRS took over the reins as he was still searching the finer details of the implementation of these promises.
(B. Chandrashekhar and M. Rajeev)
