Crafty political thinking The recent high court judgment declaring five defector MLAs of the Haryana Assembly as unattached members and barring from holding any office was interpreted in an interesting way by one of them. Two days after the judgment,he was sitting in his office,coolly clearing the files. He explained: I have not been barred from working in my office as a minister. I have been barred only from sitting in the Congress party office. Full marks for originality,if nothing else. Speakers Dec 20 jinx December 20 seems to be an unlucky day for the Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. On the same day last year,the high court had passed strict orders against the then Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha to decide on the defecter MLAs case in four months. And this year,on December 20,Sharma again had to contend with a tough judgment. In addition,there are several uncharitable references to Sharmas conduct in the judgment. Sharma is a man deep in astrology,so probably he is scratching his head these days to figure out whats wrong with December 20. Hoodas salvo A day after INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala took a dig at the government regarding the state of education,Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda hit back by telling mediapersons: People who have fake degrees should not be talking about the state of education in Haryana. How will they know the value of education and the value of a degree? Who was his barb directed to,he didnt disclose. Aap khud hi andaza laga lo, Hooda added tongue-in-cheek. HC blast on Hooda fireworks Fireworks at Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hoodas office,after winning the Ratia bypolls,could not last for long,as the Punjab and Haryana High Courts bomb has again dampened the spirits of the over confident Hooda government. While soon after Ratia bypolls results,Hooda must have thought that he or his government will have a cakewalk for the remaining tenure,the HC verdict has forced Hooda to pull up his socks,as the Opposition has started cornering the state Congress and demanding its immediate dismissal. Hooda and his close aides,who had a sigh of relief after Ratias victory and were in a celebration mode,are seen with vertically stretched faces these days. All in the family The recent scam of around Rs 60 crore in regard to awarding tenders for installing surveillance equipment in Gurgaon and Faridabad has put two senior IPS officers of Haryana in trouble. Both were summoned by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and given a dressing down for their prima-facie involvement in the alleged scam. However,on expected lines,the government has marked the probe to state vigilance department,which is also being headed by a Haryana cadre IPS officer of the same rank. One can imagine the fairness and fate of such an inquiry. The Justice Pal saga As against a thousand lawyers who signed a sharply worded requisition demanding an emergent meeting to discuss the transfer of Justice Mohinder Pal,around a hundred lawyers signed a counter requisition stating that there is no need to call a meeting. Claiming that holding a General House meeting will divide the Bar,a few lawyers also submitted their less known requisition to the President. The counter requisition,however,is silent on the issues of grave judicial accountability raised by over thousand of lawyers. A majority of the lawyers reacted sharply to the counter requisition,questioning the few interested in getting it signed. Are you supporting the high court judge? quipped a lawyer when requested to sign the counter requisition. Anything for a ticket In the run-up to the Punjab elections,the desperation for tickets has reached a fever pitch. After having tried their luck with Captain Amarinder Singh and Sukhbir Badal,ticket hopefuls are eliciting the support of Bhupinder Singh Hooda to put in a word to the powers that be in the Congress. For the Akali tickets,hopes are being pinned on Om Prakash Chautala and his famed friendship with the Badals. War on Facebook It is the new dread for politicians in poll-bound Punjab Facebook friends turning political foes. Former Peoples Party of Punjab leaders Kushaldeep Dhillon and Jagbir Brar recently were on the receiving end of social networking when their Facebook profiles and pages were flooded with hate mail on their shifting loyalties to the Congress. But while PPP claimed that the outpouring of criticism had forced the leaders to close down the account,the leaders within a day of temporarily disabling the accounts,were back on Facebook after changing their privacy settings they blocked friends who are harassing or annoying them. Both PPP leaders and the deserters claim the development has taken their popularity up on Facebook,as more friend requests are pouring in. While PPP leader Bhagwant Mann says his three Facebook profiles have all exceeded limit of 5,000,Kushaldeep says his profile had 5,000 friends and Brar till Friday was at 4,999! The Ostrich syndrome Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seems to believe that when you cant face a problem,pretend that it doesnt exist. When questioned by a scribe about the high court judgment regarding the five defector MLAs that was the talk of the state,Hoodas innocent query was: Which judgment? I dont know what you are talking about. One wonders whether Hooda gave the same reply to the all-powerful Mrs G,when she would have sought a report from him on it.
