Candid Notes

Friday, 29 April 2022 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun

Covid Calling?

The spike in the number of the Covid-19 cases in the country in the last few days has given credence to the belief that India could witness another wave of the pandemic soon. Amid this scare created by the return of Covid, the Uttarakhand government is busy making preparations for the Char Dham Yatra slated to start in the first week of May. The Yatra this year is all set to break past records of pilgrim numbers. Apart from this the sweltering heat in the plains is forcing the people to make a rush to the destinations in the mountains which means that lakhs of pilgrims and tourists would set foot in the Himalayan state coinciding with the time when Covid is making a comeback. One understands that the tourism is the mainstay of the economy of the state and that tourism and associated industries are witnessing a revival after the pandemic triggered slump of last two years but the authorities should not forget that it was the arrival of pilgrims for the Holy Kumbh last year which ignited the second and most fatal wave of pandemic in the state.

Embarrassed minister  

A minister of CM Dhami’s cabinet holding portfolios which have the highest number of employees in the state has failed to select a good team for handling his social media accounts. The slapdash approach of his team has invited a lot of flak for the diminutive minister in recent days. In one such incident these handlers uploaded a picture of the ministers of Dhami’s cabinet claiming that a cabinet meeting was held in the state headquarters of BJP under the guidance of the party’s national general secretary (Organisation) BL Santosh. This post of the minister gave ammunition to the opposition Congress which while attacking the BJP for undermining the constitution questioned the propriety and validity of the cabinet meeting in the party office. If this was not enough to put the minister in dock, his social media handlers  posted a picture of the minister with the statue of late Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna mentioning that the minister paid tribute to the great leader on his ‘ death anniversary’. This comment left the minister red faced since April 25 is actually the birth anniversary of Bahuguna. Embarrassed, the minister is now learnt to be scouting for some sensible fellows in his team.

Sleeper cells?

It appears as if a bunch of second and third rung leaders of Uttarakhand Congress are determined to send the grand old party into political oblivion in the Himalayan state. In an example of this suicidal tendency was at display recently when a woman councillor of the party in Dehradun gave the sobriquet of  ‘stone pelter’ to a martyr of the statehood movement. Her statement generated a huge public outrage which forced the leadership of the party to seek public apology for the derogatory remark and expel her from the party. However this incident has again highlighted open lack of discipline in the grand old party in the state which had paid a very heavy price for a careless comment on Muslim university made by a leader. The experts believe that this statement spawned a consolidation of Hindu voters behind the BJP due to which the Congress party was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the recent assembly elections.