Converting brickbat into a bouquet by mistranslating and misleading action of Puducherry CM V Narayanaswamy, whose government has lost the majority in the house, in front of public and party senior Rahul Gandhi, has drawn sharp criticism from the public.
A former advocate turned politician Union Minister Narayananswami is known for extemporal comments on everything. He was handpicked to lead the government by the party’s high court in keeping with its tradition of pushing its candidate mostly loyalists, discarding local leaders’ voice or choice. It nixed the chances to A Namasivayyam who was projected as CM candidate in 2016 Assembly elections. He and his followers have now switched to the BJP camp.
Narayanaswamy, who is known for knee-jerk reactions, has been at loggerhead with the constitutional head of Union territory from the day one of her assuming the office. He and his cabinet colleagues had staged sit-in-dharnas in front of Raj Niwas, criticized Lieutenant Governor Kiron Bedi in the most filthy and foul languages, carping of her each and every action was taken in large interest, complaining to President for her recall besides moving courts to clip her powers. JP Nadda who was in Puducherry last month said the Congress government failed to hold the local body polls for a long time and Central seats in colleges were not allotted to Puducherry students ‘ due to corruption. He said 70 per cent of the grant- in -aid to Puducherry from the Centre during former Prime Minister Vajpayee’s tenure, it was cut to 30 per cent when Narayanswamy was union minister. The union territory went into debt trap while the 76 per cent of youth were unemployed and employees of cooperatives sector like Khadi cooperative federation have not been paid salary for over four years. Nadda said “ When Narayanaswamy was a union minister, he waived Rs.5,000 crore loan of Jharkhand but did not waive the loan of Puducherry. This was the type of ‘justice’ the present Chief Minister did to his own state.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been touring poll pound Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry as part of the election campaign. While in Puducherry on 17th, he interacted with locals. In one of the meetings at Solai Nagar in Muthalpet, he proved his half -baked knowledge by demanding a separate ministry for Fisheries. He said fisher folks are ‘farmers of the seas’ and I proposed an exclusive ministry for fisheries and fishermen’s welfare on the lines of the ministry of Agriculture. Union Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh reminded Rahul Gandhi that the ministry was set up by PM Modi in May 2019. Union Ministers Smirti Iran and Kiren Rijiju, IB Minister Prakash Javadekar criticized Rahul Gandhi for his comments.
Like his leader, the CM is clever in converting criticism against him into appreciation by mistranslating the words of a woman. A fisherwoman accused him of not visiting coastal hamlets to offer relief after the recent cyclones. The woman alleged that none from the government visited the villages. “The sea is always rough. But no one is supporting us. Even he ( CM Narayanaswamy) .. Did he visit our hamlet even once after the cyclones”? On seeing the commotion after her outpouring, Rahul asked Narayanaswamy to translate her speech.
He cleverly hiding her accusation against him and his government translated to him. He translated, “The woman said I visited, went to the hamlet after the cyclones for distributing relief”. He was accused of mistranslating an allegation against him into a compliment. He mistranslated not once but thrice from women. When a woman tried to speak in English, Rahul asked her to ‘speak in Tamil as we are in the land of Tamil-speaking people’. This was a blessing in disguise for the Narayanaswamy whose government has been reduced to a minority and on the brink of collapse.
Journalists’ circle in Puducherry said the Centre did not act on the petition of Naryanaswamy to recall Bedi but took out a survey on its own to assess the feeling at the ground level. It is learnt that Union Minister of state Arjun Ram Meghwal who is Puducherry in charge of assembly polls and Karnataka MP Rajeev Chandrasekar, co-in-charge, undertook a survey and received feedback.
Kiran Bedi, in the parting message, thanked the Centre for the experience of a lifetime of serving Puducherry. “whatever was done was a sacred duty, fulfilling my constitutional and moral responsibilities. Puducherry has a very bright future. It is now in the hands of the people. My wishes are for a prosperous Puducherry”, she said in her message.
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