Idle ministers get worked up

Ahmed, a Cabinet Minister in the Rabri Devi government, agrees that the grievances are genuine. He himself created a fuss when he was kept out of a meeting to discuss the problems of minorities in Bihar.

The three ministers say that others feel the same way. ‘‘We have taken up the issue for the others too,’’ says Kaiser. But in a state where RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav is considered to have more powers than even the chief minister, it’s not unusual.

Even RJD ministers have complained in the past they are not being taken seriously. State Minister for Sports Monajir Hassan, who belongs to the RJD, has been saying that there is nothing for him to do in his ministry, and that nobody listens to him.

Even Cabinet ministers have publicly complained about the lack of powers. Minister of State for Commercial Taxes Dadan Pahalwan refused to go to work, saying he didn’t have his own office. Unhappy with his work, Excise Minister Shivanand Tiwari had a few months ago written to Laloo Yadav.

‘‘I can’t be a yes man or a rubber stamp. Knowing me so well and when this family has a vested interest in the Excise department, I shouldn’t have been given this portfolio,’’ Tiwari had said at that time. But not everyone is taking the resignation letters of the three ministers seriously. A Congress worker said: ‘‘It is obvious that in a set-up like this they will be treated in this manner. They all wanted to be ministers and never complained in three years.’’