AS AN opposition leader it was the first time when former chief minister Digvijay Singh exhibited his characteristic élan in the State Assembly as he took on the Shivraj Singh Government over the Governor’s speech.
In about 75 minutes, Singh, in his inimitable style, mixed politics, humour, demagogy and statesmanship with amazing rapidity.
He began by decrying the BJP as his young sister Uma Bharti’s exploiter and ended with a call to the Sadhvi to avenge the humiliation from the ‘baby-lifter’ by contesting by-poll from Budhni against Shivraj Singh. Uma Bharti had accused Shivraj of stealing her baby ( government) after she was denied a second chance for chief ministership.
In between, he cautioned Shivraj (‘Bhaiyaji’) against the Hindutva lackeys of the ‘Didi’ who are out to defame the government by terrorising the minorities in the State.
{{/usCountry}}In between, he cautioned Shivraj (‘Bhaiyaji’) against the Hindutva lackeys of the ‘Didi’ who are out to defame the government by terrorising the minorities in the State.
{{/usCountry}}He advised Shivraj against indulging in too many pompous welcomes and instead focus on governance. He also offered ‘free consultancy’ to the Chief Minister on a variety of issues, quipping, “after all, this Mr Bantadhar had not been as incompetent as you people made him out to be”.
The BJP, during the last Assembly election campaign, had dubbed Singh as ‘Mr Bantadhar’ or destroyer of the State. The ‘self-appraisal’ followed a bunch of references from the Governor’s speech and replies to the questions raised in the recent past that the former chief minister had carefully noted down in preparation for the speech.
Marshalling the facts, Singh claimed in the House how the BJP Government’s own record