Off The Record - June 27, 2020

Overconfidence

Kerala government’s decision to conduct pending SSLC and higher secondary examinations at the end of May had faced stiff objections, mainly from the Opposition, owing to Covid-19. But the government went ahead with the decision and luckily no student was infected. It was this confidence that enabled the government to conduct the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical entrance examination on July 16, despite the alarming increase in Covid-19 cases. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also accused of being adamant. This time luck did not favour the state as four students and a parent are already infected and many are under the risk of exposure. The government’s overconfidence has now caused embarrassment.

Arjun Raghunath, Thiruvananthapuram

Saving a tree

Maharashtra Tourism and Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray, has managed to save a four-century-old banyan tree from getting chopped in Sangli district for development projects. Thackeray had written to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. The massive banyan tree with a shady spread of over 400 sq mts stands beside the famed Yellamma Temple in Bhose village, Sangli district and was threatened by the expansion of the Solapur-Sangli-Kolhapur-Ratnagiri Expressway. The tree is not only historical but also a natural home for many rare birds, mammals, monkeys and insects.

Mrityunjay Bose, Mumbai

New welcome

On July 22, when newly-elected Rajya Sabha MPs were taking the oath, all eyes were on one leader– BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia, who caused the collapse of Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. His every move was under observation by MPs sitting in the Rajya Sabha chamber and their guests in the galleries. Scindia walked over to Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and his arch-rival Digvijay Singh and greeted them soon after he took oath. He also greeted Mallikarjun Kharge. Scindia later told the leaders, including KC Venugopal, “I may have changed the party, it doesn’t mean that you are out of my hearts. You all still have a place in my heart.” To this, a leader told him, “we had placed you so high in our hearts but you let us down and left us sad.”

Shemin Joy, New Delhi

Plasma donation

Ever since Covid-19 pandemic began, there has been a race among some officials in Kashmir to remain active on twitter and increase the followers. After some failed hashtags, few among them along with their cheerleaders are now banking on pleas for a donation of plasma from recovered coronavirus patients. People are of the opinion that it’s good to make pleas and save lives, but the officials try to hide their failures on the ground and turn humanitarian action into some kind of a sarkaar-sponsored mela. People of Kashmir generous enough that even an SOS on blood donation is enough to draw beelines at the places of need. Who knows the meaning of life more than a common Kashmiri?

Zulfikar Majid, Srinagar

Poaching halted

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is undergoing treatment in a private hospital after being tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. His sudden illness has halted the BJP drive to poach Congress MLAs. So far, the BJP has succeeded in buying over three Congress MLAs to its side in the last two weeks. The ruling party was planning to engineer more defections. Other senior BJP leaders are in self-quarantine following the detection of infection in their leader. In the previous three defections of the Congress MLAs since July 2, a fixed pattern was followed. The MLAs first met the Speaker individually in the Assembly to tender resignation from membership of the house and then proceeded to the state BJP headquarters to announce their induction to the BJP in presence of the chief minister.

Rakesh Dixit, Bhopal