Off the record: March 15,2021

Tough fight

Nemom is the lone BJP sitting seat in Kerala and is the cynosure of all eyes in this election season as Congress, BJP and the CPI(M) want to win this seat at any cost. After much suspense and names like Oommen Chandy popping up, Congress has decided on Lok Sabha MP K Muralidharan to take on BJP’s Kummanom Rajashekharan and CPI(M)’s V Sivankutty. Congress has been facing allegations of not putting a strong candidate there in the past to help the BJP. The contest was interesting as Muralidharan had in 2016 Assembly polls trounced Rajashekharan in the nearby Vattiyoorkaavu segment. This shouldn’t dishearten Rajashekharan as in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when he unsuccessfully contested against Shashi Tharoor, he polled 12,000 more than the Congress leader in Nemom. Sivankutty is also confident of winning the seat as he was elected earlier from the segment.

Shemin Joy, New Delhi

Unmasked

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had been repeatedly appealing to people to wear masks in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases, however, his estranged cousin and MNS President Raj Thackeray seems to defy the requests. In fact, Uddhav recently snubbed people not wearing masks. But, in some public appearances that Raj made, he was seen without mask. “I don’t wear masks,” he said when he was asked by reporters. After that, Mumbai Mayor and Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar, a former nurse, appealed, “Raj saheb...people adore you, they follow you...please do wear masks and set an example,” she said. In all of his speeches over the past year, Thackeray had been requesting people to wear masks and to wear it properly, wash and sanitise hands.

Mrityunjay Bose, Mumbai

Weak excuse

A few months back Kodiyeri Balakrishnan stepped down from Kerala CPM state secretary post citing ill health, even as it was quite obvious that it was an attempt to save the party from the embarrassment caused by his son Bineesh Kodiyeri’s arrest in connection with Bengaluru drug peddling case. To convince the official stand of ‘ill health’ Balakrishnan even stayed away from the limelight for a couple of months. But now he is actively taking part in the Assembly election campaign but had not returned to the party secretary post. This is indeed exposing the ill health reason cited by the party earlier.

Arjun Raghunath, Thiruvananthapuram

Much appreciation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shed a tear for Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on the latter’s farewell as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha last month. The government’s admiration of Azad is also reflected in the committee constituted to guide the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. While Azad, as former Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has been made a member of the 259-member Committee, incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge’s name is conspicuous by its absence. Kharge was named as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha soon after Azad completed his tenure on February 15. Another exclusion in the committee is of D Raja, the General Secretary of the CPI. Sitaram Yechury is the sole member from the Left parties.

Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi

A rot

Every year in Kashmir after the declaration of results by the Board of School Education, marks and grades of school children are paraded on newspaper pages in the ‘best school race’. The pictures of toppers along with congratulatory messages are displayed even on hoardings in the city centre and its adjoining areas. These ‘best’ schools don’t answer one question. If toppers are their products, who will take the responsibility of poor scorers from these schools? If at all it does anything, it exposes the rot in the education system has become.

Zulfikar Majid, Srinagar