Sharing their birthdays
but not ideology
By Deepal Trevedie
God
definitely has a great sense of humour. Otherwise how can it be possible
that political archrivals share birthdays in the same month? Chief minister
Keshubhai Patel celebrated his birthday on July 24 and former chief
minister Shankarsinh Vaghela celebrated his on July 21. Former Chief
minister Madhavsinh Solanki celebrated his birthday on July 30 and another
former chief minister, of the same party, the Congress, Mr Amarsinh
Chaudhary, celebrated his on July 31.
That makes four (three
former and one incumbent) chief ministers of Gujarat having birthdays
in July.
Sure, that sounds interesting.
Mr Vaghela, who is just back from a tour to the US, celebrated his birthday
on July 23. Shankarsinh celebrated it with fruit salad, whereas Keshubhai
treated everyone, who came to wish him, with pendas.
But Keshubhai has surely
not lost touch with grass roots workers. He chose to celebrate his birthday
in a simple manner. He had Dal, rotli, shaak and chhas in
the morning and the customary khichdi in the evening. Unlike
many other BJP leaders, who enjoy cakes and pastries, there was nothing
of this kind on Keshubhai's 71st birthday. Real swadeshi,
I would say. Nice to see that even after becoming the chief minister,
he has been celebrating his birthdays in a low profile manner. That
not only requires a great sense of self-confidence but even an outstanding
political acumen. Keshubhai seems to have both. He would not have been
the chief minister had he lacked it. Instead Suresh Mehta, Shankarsinh
Vaghela would have been in his place.
Fan
at i(c)t: Changing textbooks
What happens when the education
minister is a cricket fan. She, in this case, takes timely decisions.
Gujarat's education minister Anandi Patel is a great cricket fan, who
adored Kapil Dev. But not any more. She says that the day she saw Kapil
Dev break down on the television, she sensed something was wrong. "No
more cricket for me," she says adding that she has totally stopped seeing
cricket on the television.
It does help to have a
minister who is actually aware of what is happening around instead of
simply listening to what her bureaucrats say and as Anandiben has been
a teacher in the recent past, maybe she knows the immense influence
text books have on children.
The 10th standard
English medium textbooks had a chapter on Kapil Dev where Kapil Dev
himself talks about his life and cricket. In the chapter, Kapil Dev
says how as a child he was never interested in studies but always wanted
to play and have luxuries in life like a good posh house, a Mercedes
and so on and so forth. Now that all eyes are on the cricketers and
Kapil Dev too finds himself in a tight spot with the income tax and
the CBI zeroing in on him, Anandiben strongly feels that it is high
time the children are taught authentic things.
She has decided and instructed
that no school in Gujarat should teach that chapter. From next year,
the books will delete the chapter from the textbooks. Anandiben has
stressed that this year the chapter would not be taught and no questions
would be asked from it in the board examinations.
In India, live role models
and heroes seem to be scarce. Till now cricketers were our real life
heroes. Now our only option is the defence personnel, who fight for
the country.
No wonder Anandiben has
an interesting and significant suggestion. With so many real life heroes
turning villains, in India it seems we should teach and give chapters
on only those people who are no more alive. At least our young generation
will not have to learn from wrong examples.
Well, we agree with you
Anandiben.
In
the groove: Struck by vicissitudes
Interesting happenings
that have happened recently
- The administrator of the Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation, Mr P.K. Laheri, got caught in a lift at the posh Centre
Point complex in Ambawadi area in Ahmedabad. He got stuck in the lift
for nearly 30 minutes.
- Pooja Bhatt got more admirers in Ahmedabad
than what Urmila Matondkar got. It was because of Pooja's vibrant
talking and lively interaction. Not all good-looking people are dumb,
this Gujju proved it.
- Narmada minister Jainarayan Vyas is
reportedly not happy with chief minister Keshubhai Patel. He has even
made his displeasure clear through "off the record" talks. Similarly,
the always-on-the-move Ashok Bhatt is apparently not happy with revenue
minister Vaju Vala, who handled Bhatt's food and civil supplies portfolio
in his absence. Vajubhai seems to have cleared some files in Bhatt's
absence, which Bhatt has not liked.
But then Mr Bhatt too,
a minister says, has cleared files of the other departments he has been
given to handle when the ministers have been out. Quid pro quo?
- Senior IPS officer Gurudayal Singh,
who was the additional DGP, has been suspended by the state government.
Chief minister Keshubhai Patel and Haren Pandya had announced in July
first week that the state government will take strict action against
all corrupt and controversial police officers and bureaucrats. For
a change, this announcement has been translated into action. Though
the IPS officers' association met and has discussed and deliberated
the government decision to suspend a top IPS officer, the people of
Gujarat should be glad to have got rid of Gurudayal Singh, alleged
of having terrorist connections in Punjab.
A top IAS officer is believed
to be next in the list of suspension. Good beginning, why should it
just be constables, head constables, clerks and deputy mamlatdars, who
get suspended for accepting hundred odd bucks. Why should those who
make crores be allowed to go scot-free? Discrimination in corruption
or challenging corruption could be a real demoralising thing for all
concerned citizens. For a change, the government seems to be doing something
that will get endorsed by the masses? What next Keshubhai? A movement
against corrupt politicians?
Dumped
dame dumps all at giving a reply
Top women's magazine published
from Paris had a Gujarati giving the best answer to a question that
earned her a trip to Switzerland.
The question was: How do
you know that a man is a navra bazaar - not doing anything concrete
in life? The prize winning answer by some Aneisha Shah Marquliez says:
"With my exhaustive experience with Gujarati and French men, I can confidently
say that if you fall in love and the man pretends to be too busy, he
is not interested in you." Dump him before he dumps you." What a piece
of advice!
