Sunday, September 30, 2007

Assault of Bhojpuri Wit on Union Home Minister


Media mostly blanked out the sharp attack on the Home Minister Shivraj Patil unleashed by Prabhunath Singh, JD(U)MP from Maharajganj who initiated the debate on the adjournment motion on the Hyderabad blasts in the Lok Sabha. He used rural wit and humour. Patil is known to pay more attention to his wardrobe than to the various bomb blasts and other unfortunate incidents in the country.



Here are two samples of Singh's wit, which duly hit the intended target, given the angry response of the ruling party members. Referring to the set pattern of minister's response to such acts of terror before getting back to `business as usual.

He said, Home Minister "is here and I am sure in his reply he will read out, like the Satya Narain Katha, whatever speech his officials have written for him and then wash his hands off the entire problem of terrorism." This had a number of Congress MPs on their feet, objecting to the reference to `Satya Narain Katha'. Amidst the bedlam, Singh explained that `Satya Narain is another name for Lord Vishnu and that it was an annual ritual in Bihar to have a pundit read out the story of Satya Narain before everyone goes back to doing whatever one normally does.

Later, Singh referred to the annual animal fair in Sonepur in Bihar and said how a cow, which gave 20 litres of milk, was sold for Rs 20,000 while another one with a calf thrown in went for Rs 25,000. "However everyone was surprised when a good-looking cow went for Rs 30,000, even though it yielded neither milk nor had a calf to go with it." On being asked the reason for such a high price for the barren cow, Singh said amidst loud laughter, "that that cow, like our Home Minister, did precious little but was good to look at."

Friday, September 28, 2007

Story of Ajit singh, Sunil Pandey, MPs & MLAs from Bhojpur

Bhojpur falls under three Lok Shabha constituencies. The MPs from these constituencies are:

Arrah- Kanti Singh (RJD)

Buxer- Lalmuni Chowbey (BJP)

Bikramganj-Late Dr Ajit Singh (JDU)



Dr Ajit Singh, the first time MP from Bikramganj passed away on August 1st, 2007 in “mysterious” circumstances. He was Chairman, National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), since 1998.
Press Trust of India reported that he was killed in a road accident at Sarsar village in Siwan district. Singh (45), a first time MP and chairman of NAFED, was critically injured when a private bus hit him and three others, including former Congress MLA Umashanker Singh, when the two leaders were standing on the road, police said. Bleeding profusely, the MP was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries during an operation."Singh had great blood loss and suffered a heart attack during the operation. We could not save him," doctors attending on him said.

Police said, the MP was on way to Gopalganj when he saw Umashanker Singh, ex-MLA coming from the opposite direction. The two stopped their vehicles for a talk when the bus rammed into them. Umashanker Singh alongwith the MP's driver and body guard were injured in the accident but, were stated to be out of danger. Ajit Singh was the younger son of late Tapeshwar Singh, a veteran Congressman.

Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav has sought a CBI probe into the “mysterious” death of party MP Ajit Singh, who was also the Chairman NAFED.Singh was knocked down by an empty bus while he was standing on a footpath and talking to an ex-MLA. Addressing a press conference here on 9 August, 2007, Ydav said Dr. Singh had twice expressed to him apprehension about danger to his life. He had even hired a bodyguard recently after he reportedly received threatening phone calls in the "multi-crore scam." Yadav alleged that after NAFED modified its mandate to funding public-private partnerships big money laundering had taken place and some individuals benefited with the help of bureaucracy. "Rules were bent and norms flouted to lend crore of rupees to such individuals."

“The CBI enquiry into the corruption (in NAFED) is going on and Ajit Singh was helping the CBI to book the culprits. In fact, he took steps to recover the Government’s (NAFED’s) money from the individuals who apparently have links with the underworld. All this should be investigated and the country’s money should be recovered.”He said although NAFED was meant to safeguard the interests of farmers and consumers, its management changed the policy, to invest in trade and industry for earning extra money.

Brief Overview of the Bhojpur Politicians



Bhojpur district has seven assembly constituencies.


Given below are the names of the MLAs from these Vidhan Sabha regions:

Sandesh - Vijendra Yadav (RJD)
Barhara - Asha Devi (JDU)
Arrah - Amrendra Pratap Singh (BJP)
Shahpur - Munni Devi (BJP)
Jagdishpur- Sri Bhagwan Singh (JDU)
Piro - Narendra Kumar Pandey [Sunil Pandey] (JDU)
Sahar - Ram Naresh Ram (CPI-ML)

In one of the cases, Sunil Pandey has been accused of barging into a police station and threatening Officer-In-Charge R P Sinha with dire consequences for refusing to provide him police security. Sinha had himself lodged an FIR. Charges were framed against the MLA in April 2005 in which six policemen, including the complainant and the Investigating Officer (IO), were witnesses. The court sent summons followed by warrants of arrest but none of the policemen turned up. Finally, in September, 2007 the court absolved the MLA for lack of evidence.

In another case , the MLA was charged with abusing and assaulting officers deputed to conduct the election of a school chairperson. The FIR was lodged by Labour Officer Siya Ram Singh, a designated Magistrate. Despite summons from the trial court, neither the complainant nor the IO appeared in the court .

Yet another case concerning assault and illegal confinement of a Dalit over a property dispute met the same fate as the IO refrained from turning up in court.
When contacted, Rohtas SP N H Khan acknowledged the lapse and said he would file a review petition for re-trial in at least one case. “I am personally probing the lapses. Responsibilities would be fixed,” Khan said.

The SP said that apart from the policemen, he is also probing the role of government’s Assistant Public Prosecutor Ravindra Prasad, who was handling all the three cases.