Himachal Diary: PM Modi rally irks hoteliers as bookings cancelled
The holding of the rally to mark eight years of NDA rule led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left the hoteliers and others associated with the tourism industry irked. The hoteliers rued that this is the peak tourist season and the holding of the rally has led to cancellation of bookings after the date for PM’s rally was announced. They lament that as the tourism industry is getting back on track after suffering heavily for two years due to Covid the state government should have avoided the rally in Shimla as tourists would be harassed.
Empty chairs worry ruling BJP
Empty chairs during the workers meeting of the BJP held at Shahpur last week created a flutter in Kangra BJP leadership. A few journalists, who shared photos of empty chairs on social media, were trolled by the BJP workers by saying that the pictures were taken before the programme began. However, the incident brought to the fore anger of ground level workers against “arrogant attitude” of some senior BJP leaders of the state.
BJP leadership fatigued
The manner in which the ruling BJP is going all out to gear up its party cadres for the Assembly elections due later this year has left its leaders fatigued. The ministers and MLAs admit in private that they have no time to take a breather as one programme after the other is being planned by the party leadership. Besides, visits of senior leaders, including national BJP chief JP Nadda and now PM Modi, has kept them busy. “The manner in which the party is carrying on we all will be fatigued by the times elections approach,” admitted an MLA.
Desperate to take credit
Police department appears to be patting its back in the paper leak scam after arresting lower rung agents. The special investigation team probing the scam has adopted a stoic silence on how the cell numbers of candidates were leaked to the paper leak scam. No information was being made public on where the papers were printed and other allied issues. Desperation to take credit for the probe is so high that even information about a suspect was released to the media which alerted and delayed the arrest. One wonders whether the truth will ever come out as those at the helm of the scam in the police department have got sufficient time to do away with the evidence.
(Contributed by Pratibha Chauhan, Lalit Mohan and Ambika Sharma.)
