Maharaja walks, PR machinery talks

When it comes to ingenuity, Punjab Congress' PR machinery wins hands down. State president Captain Amarinder Singh is still the maharaja and any attempt by him to meet the aam aadmi warrants nothing less than a press statement. So much so, that when Captain walked through the main market in Moga during poll campaigning on Friday, the party's machinery had this to say: "Capt Amarinder walked through one of busiest and main markets in Moga for over an hour and spoke to people. He got down from his car and started walking in the market much to the pleasant surprise of people. His security staff had a tough job controlling people who had surrounded him, wanted to shake hands and get photographed." Need we say more!

Band, baaja , baraat!

"The Congress' runaway bride (Joginderpal Jain) has become the Akali Dal dulha (groom) and for both, band, baaja and baraat has descended on Moga," a Congress leader summed up the procession of VIPs from both parties camping in Moga for the bypoll along with all their paraphanelia - SUVs, imported eatables, drinks et al. "The modest town does not have many good eateries, clubs or other means of entertainment. Some are even thanking Jain for Moga's new-found importance and the free entertainment," quipped a Akali leader.

Leadership crisis

With the Haryana Assembly's budget session set to begin on February 22, speculation is rife on who will lead the Opposition in the House. Leader of Opposition Om Prakash Chautala's arrest on corruption charges has virtually left the INLD headless these days. Though the senior Chautala's bail application is pending in the Delhi High Court and INLD leaders are keeping their fingers crossed, talks are already on to pick his replacement — at least for the budget session. While the party chief's younger son Abhey Chautala seems to have taken over the reins for now, the INLD has another choice in Ashok Arora, who had served as the Vidhan Sabha Speaker when the party was in power. While some senior INLD advisors and leaders opine that Ashok Arora should be designated as the party's face in the forthcoming budget session, the stumbling block is that the party has always been led by a member of the Chautala family. With such history, Abhey Chautala at least stands a fair chance to lead the debate as a deputy leader of opposition

Silence redefined

The Haryana Congress appears to have set a new definition for "silence". Ever since INLD leaders including former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his legislator son Ajay Chautala were convicted on charges of corruption, the ruling party has only one thing to say: the law is taking its course. While senior party leaders have chosen to keep mum on the court's verdict, a few other leaders, however, have come out of hiding and used the occasion to speak on the party's behalf. Be it Sampat Singh or Karan Singh Dalal or the Chief Minister's media advisor Dr K V Singh, all have either addressed media briefings or sent press releases advising the INLD not to politicise the court's verdict.

Jackpot for Haryana IPS

Scores of senior Haryana IPS officers, who had got promotions and had been elevated to higher ranks, are sitting idle courtesy the state government's lackadaisical approach in issuing their fresh postings and transfer orders. While Senior Superintendent of Police rank officers have been promoted as Deputy Inspector Generals of Police, DIGs have been promoted to IGs and so on, but they are still awaiting their fresh posting and transfer orders. It has been over a month now for a bunch of officers, who have been sitting at cushy postings in the Haryana Police Headquarters at Panchkula where they only do 'routine work'.

Distance & hearts...fonder

The work of transferring ownership of vehicles, addition/deletion of hypothecation, issuance of duplicate registration certificates (RCs) and no-objection certificates (NOCs) will no longer be done at sub-divisions in Punjab. From now on, district transport officers (DTOs) will handle all this work. Directions have been issued by the transport department to shift the vehicle-related transport records from the offices of the SDMs to the DTO offices, ostensibly for computerisation. On one hand, while the previous government, just before the Assembly elections, created two new districts and many sub-divisions and sub-tehsils to provide services at the doorstep, in this case, people have to now travel long distances, around 50 to 70 kms, to avail of these services. Officials say that this decision of government appears to have followed the good, old adage- distance makes hearts grow fonder. One can only guess if that's the case.

Attention-seeking slammed

Various SAD leaders faced flak from an enterprising anchor during a recent party meeting for workers in Moga. In a desperate attempt to get noticed by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the leaders began sending chits, with their names on it, to the anchor on stage for them to be read out. With the deputy chief minister arriving three hours late, however, the anchor was flooded with the 'name chits' of SAD leaders, who had come from all parts of state. Having had enough, the anchor then made an announcement: "I request all leaders who have arrived to stop sending their name slips on stage. It is a meeting not a conference where every name will be announced on stage. It is our internal meeting to allot duties for the Moga bypoll and it is good if you have made it but we cannot announce every name on stage. Thank You." It certainly had the desired effect as the 'name slips' vanished.

Playing it safe

Unlike his persona in the commentary box, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu prefers to play it safe when it comes to answering controversial questions. This was on full display during a recent meeting of Amritsar International Airport advisory committee as he ducked media queries on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being projected as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Parliamentary polls. "From where has Narendra Modi come to the Airport," Sidhu said. TV journalists, however, were hopeful of his byte and hence decided to chase him. As the mikes were again brought in front of him, Sidhu listened to the same query with rapt attention, but responded with "any other question".

All for nothing

Organisers at the All India Motor Transport Congress in Amritsar had a tough time keeping hungry souls at bay. With participants growing increasingly impatient for lunch to be declared open, organisers and hotel staff made it clear that it would only be done after Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal arrived. The task was made even more difficult as Sukhbir was late for the function. The deputy chief minister, however, landed up, delivered a lecture and left the venue without even looking at the lunch section. A number of participants were seen taking a jibe at the development that kept them away from lunch for hours together. No wonder, it was a near stampede for lunch the moment Sukhbir left.

Vote again

Ever since Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia used unparliamentary language in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, he has been in the eye of a storm that has refused to die down, with the Congress showing CDs of the incident at various places. With a bypoll scheduled at Moga, the minister himself admitted that the Congress my gain votes because of the CD but was quick to add that those will be the only votes that the party will get. "Perhaps, this will give a few votes to the Congress but they will still lose the bypoll," Majithia, who was Bhanaur village in Ludhiana, said before adding that the Congress has no other issue except his expletives CD.

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