Chandigarh Confidential: Will Hooda lead the campaign again?

Tipped off

Had the new Punjab Advocate General Ashok Aggarwal not given a “tip-off” to the petitioner challenging the controversial transport policy of Punjab,the petitioner would have never been able to lay hands on certain significant information which prima facie establishes the involvement of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son in the alleged manipulations made in the policy. The tip-off was regarding the information available on a website,the address of which was disclosed by Aggarwal to the petitioner on the last date of hearing. From this website,the petitioner downloaded information,which resulted in issuance of notices to the chief minister and the deputy chief minister. “Mr Aggarwal,it was you who gave the clue to the petitioner,” quipped acting Chief Justice M M Kumar to the new Advocate General. Aggarwal was at complete loss of words after he heard the next sentence from the Bench: “Dasti (by hand) notices to the chief minister and deputy chief minister.”

Getting back to terra firma

The Hisar defeat appears to have brought the Haryana chief minister down to earth. In a media conference held mid-week,Hooda seemed to have shed layers of uppitiness. Gone was the haughty air and the now familiar aura of dismissiveness. He responded to every question with earnestness,much to the surprise of the journalists. He seems to have learnt the hard way that it doesn’t pay to be overconfident and infallible. With Assembly bypolls to Ratia and Adampur coming up,Hooda has enough infighting in the Congress to deal with,to make more enemies outside.

Adjusting ‘ace of spades’

The Diwali season may be over,but the SPs in the state have been reduced to playing cards by the Haryana government — which has been frequently shuffling them during the last two months — all for adjusting the “ace of Spade”,Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer Vivek Sharma,who has been especially brought to the state on inter-state deputation. Sharma is incidentally a close relative of Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. The first round of shuffling took place when Hisar SP Vivek Sharma was transferred following directions of the Election Commission in view of the October 13 Hisar bypolls. While Rewari SP Vikas Kumar Arora was posted as new Hisar SP,Sharma was made the Fatehabad SP. After the Hisar bypolls got over and the Congress faired miserably,Arora was shifted back to his old posting as the Rewari SP. Vivek Sharma was given additional charge of Hisar SP on October 28. Thus,he managed to get hold of two districts,but again not for long,as the Election Commission announced Adampur and Ratia bypolls on November 30. Since Ratia falls in Fatehabad district,Vivek Sharma had to be shifted again. But this time,he landed straight in Rohtak — the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. This again created a ripple effect,wherein the state government had to shift four other SPs.

Going ‘places’ with kabaddi

The combative game of kabaddi has suddenly become symbolic of the upcoming battle of the ballot in Punjab. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal — who has managed to make the second edition of the Kabaddi World Cup a grand affair by roping in Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for the inaugural ceremony and 13 countries for the men’s title as well as four first-time women teams — has also politically stratergised to attract crowd where it matters. So,it was no coincidence that the inauguration happened on November 1 in Bathinda,the same day Congress launched its Punjab Bachao Yatra. The matches at Dhudike in Moga are scheduled on the day People’s Party of Punjab president Manpreet Badal is to launch his Izzat Sambhal Yatra. Wait and watch to see who wrests the final game.

‘Clueless’ Bhattal

Within days of being directed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to look united for the 2012 polls,Punjab Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal did the “unforgivable”. A day after state Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh publicly announced his objection to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Punjab to inaugurate the Khalsa Heritage Centre,Bhattal welcomed the visit for what she described as the right way to showcase the Centre’s contribution to the Sikh memorial in particular and Punjab in general. All this while being blissfully clueless about Amarinder’s letter. After a delayed damage control by her media managers,she was quick to chorus her support for Capt the next day. “He did his duty to inform the PM that the memorial has been already inaugurated during his tenure,” she said. In the “PM round” at least,the Congress has managed to take a lead.

Under the scanner

Following media reports that the CBDT had summoned an MP from Haryana for having black money saved in a foreign account,the state’s politicians and bureaucracy remained busy through the week trying to figure out which MP it could be. Haryana has 10 MPs and other than Kuldeep Bishnoi,who was recently elected,the rest are all Congress MPs. Everyone hazarded guesses in private refusing to comment anything on record. Not to lose any opportunity,INLD general secretary Ajay Chautala,however,said that it could be no one but Deepinder Singh Hooda — the chief minister’s son.

On being cautious

The public relations department of Haryana seems unstoppable. This week,on the eve of the 46th Haryana Day,it issued a lengthy press statement on behalf of the chief minister announcing a bonanza for government employees. But the statement came with a curious condition: It could not be used before 9.30pm. The bold rider even used the word “embargoed”,a word not used for such routine releases. A source in CMO,however,explained that the CM was out of Chandigarh and was expected to arrive only later in the day. The department for once was being overcautious and not overenthusiastic.

One upmanship

While speaking to journalists on Tuesday,Ajay Chautala was happily trashing a yet-to-be released PR booklet of the Haryana government. When asked how did he manage to lay his hands on it,Chautala recounted a recent incident in Gurgaon. A set of goons freed a friend from police custody,stole the policeman’s weapons and as the final insult,kidnapped the cop himself. “In a state where all this is possible,how difficult can it be to whisk a booklet yet to be released by the government?” he guffawed.