For brother

Slapping a lesson

BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai publicly thrashed a party worker at the UP Power Corporation Limited office last week. A group of party workers from Kanpur had come to Lucknow to stage a protest against frequent power cuts in the industrial city. Led by Bajpai,they reached UPPCL office where security personnel denied them entry and closed the gates. A worker of the yuva morcha climbed onto the gate while other started pushing it. The worker who had climbed on the gate was expecting that senior leaders would be happy over his enthusiasm and aggression. But Bajpai gave him a few tight slaps. No senior leader,even Kanpur president Surendra Maithani,intervened. Bajpai’s message was clear that they had gone to the UPPCL office with a demand and they should behave like workers of a disciplined party.

The real gainer

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad may claim success for its 84-kosi parikrama despite the government’s crackdown,but the real gainer was the small temple located at Makhauda village in Basti. The temple shot into limelight as it was the starting and concluding point of the VHP’s yatra. Due to this,heavy security arrangements were made at the temple. Senior officials also spent nights,camping at the temple situated on the bank of a river. With no power connection and water supply in the temple,it was hard for them. Promptly,solar high mast lights were installed and handpumps were bored for drinking water. Local villagers are happy that the small temple now remains illuminated during the night and they don’t have to drink polluted water from Manorama river.

Passing the buck

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav usually answers any query from newsmen,but during the press conference held after Samajwadi Party’s national executive meeting at Agra,he preferred to keep quiet in the presence of SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mulayam passed questions on Azam Khan not attending cabinet meetings,and whether the government will give permission to Congress leaders to visit Muzaffarnagar to Akhilesh Yadav. Realising that the answers may land him in a controversy,Akhilesh replied,“I cannot speak when our national president is present and is taking the questions.”

Poetic justice

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav fulfilled the demand of Hindi littérateurs who were felicitated by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav at a function organised by Hindi Sansthan. Some poets complained to Mulayam that the award money of Rs 40,000 was too little. Mulayam immediately asked Akhilesh not to felicitate anyone half-heartedly. Akhilesh accepted the demand and raised the award money to Rs 50,000.