It is not unusual for politicians to feel uneasy when the media mentions them as the source of a report. Often they suggest that their names should be left out and the information should be attributed merely to unnamed ‘sources’. K.J. George, Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning, was upset when recent reports cited such ‘sources’ while writing about the Chief Minister. He even came up with a conspiracy theory: “Somebody is doing mischief in the name of such nameless informants”. The reports spoke of a change of guard in the State after the controversies broke out over the Chief Minister’s luxury watch episode and his son’s involvement in setting up a diagnostic laboratory in a government hospital.
Now, Mr. George, who rushed to defend Mr. Siddaramaiah, lambasted reporters for using the word ‘sources’ instead of names of the persons who gave them this information. He appealed to them not to publish ‘off the record’ (or unattributed) stories and instead name their sources. As a last straw, he went so far as to ask them to go by only the statements of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi and not believe any other source.
When plaints boomerang
Some politicians have made it a habit to complain against officials at every opportunity, with or without reason. One of them would be Ramesh Jigajinagi, BJP MP for Vijayapura district. One such instance got Mr. Jigajinagi a resounding reply when the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was reviewing the drought situation with officials.
During the meeting, Mr. Jigajinagi complained to the Chief Minister that officials were not visiting Indi taluk in Vijayapura to inspect a drinking water project there. Mr. Siddaramaiah, who was hearing the problems of all elected representatives, promptly sought a reply from the officials. In defence, the officials quickly said that they visit all villages with drinking water projects as per an order or schedule they have drawn up. The Chief Minister turned to the MP and asked in a tone laced with anger and humour, “When did you last visit Indi taluk?” Mr. Jigajinagi was caught unawares and had no answer.
Cashing in on adversity
Political blame game began in right earnest when thousands of garment workers poured out on to the streets of Bengaluru last week, protesting against the new rules on withdrawing Provident Fund contributions. While the Congress government said it had little to do with what was unfolding, the BJP blamed the State government for its inability to control the violent situation. The protest was heard all the way in Delhi and a defensive Central government withdrew amendments until July.
Meanwhile, an interesting hoarding came up in the Bommanahalli area, one of city’s hubs for garment factories. Put up by realtor-turned-BJP MLA M. Satish Reddy, it congratulated Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar and MP representing the area for prevailing upon the Ministry to take a pro-labour stand on the issue. Trust a politician to turn a sensitive situation into a political opportunity.
PU’s ‘Lagaan’ team
At a news conference convened by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education last week, reporters were full of questions seeking to know how the department would ensure that II PU exam results came out in time as evaluators were on strike. In the middle of a heated question and answer session, department officials announced that they would rope in teachers from private colleges, high schools and even retired PU lecturers as evaluators. One reporter asked Principal Secretary Ajay Seth if the department was working with a ‘Lagaan’ like team as these officials were caught in a totally unfamiliar situation. A quick-witted Mr. Seth immediately justified the plan and reminded that in the end, the team in the Hindi film had won the match. Now with government PU lecturers calling off their strike, it appears that the department has members from both teams on its side.
Muralidhara Khajane,
Firoz Rozindar,
Bageshree S, and
Tanu Kulkarni
