Patna, (BiharTimes): After the humiliating defeat in the Assembly election the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to commit one political blunder after another.

First its MLAs and MLCs eagerly accepted all the gifts given by different departments of the state. The CPI ML was the only party whose three MLAs, as per the established line, refused to accept the gifts.

But that was not the case with the BJP. When the media on Friday highlighted the news about the distribution of gifts––not a new phenomenon, of course––the leader of opposition in the state Legislative Council tweeted that he, along with the leader of opposition in the Assembly Prem Kumar and the state BJP president, Mangal Pandey, would return all the gifts. He went on to later clarify that the BJP has not taken any decision about other party legislators. Any decision to return the gifts depends on their “individual discretion.”

The first question is as to what prompted the media to give so much undue coverage to this, at least three decades old practice. Perhaps the scarcity of news in Bihar drove some journalists to do this story. And when they did the BJP’s spokesman, Shahnawaz Husain, thoughtlessly shot his mouth off stating that the state government should instead announce the gift for the people rather than for the elected representatives.

Good words, indeed. But before stating so Shahnawaz, who is at present not an elected representative, forgot that his own party legislators had accepted the gifts. And not just for the first time. They have been doing so for the last many years.

The saffron party was in power with the JD(U) for about eight years, yet the party never objected to it.
One may ask now as to why the media did not do any story in those about eight long years. Perhaps it was difficult to do stories when Nitish-SuMo duo were in power, and a bit easy to do when Nitish-Tejaswi (read Lalu) combine are holding the fort.

No doubt the state Congress chief-cum-education minister, Ashok Chaudhary, is no less responsible for creating this mess and giving media an opportunity to make it a national story.

Instead of giving smart phones, lap-tops, suitcases, bags, watches etc his department chose to distribute microwave ovens.

While one can justify the above items by stating that they are of some use for the legislators how can one argue in favour of ovne. Yet he went on to suggest that the lawmakers can heat their mid-day meal while tasting it in any school in their constituencies. More ridiculous was his point that some legislators lead a bachelor life in the state capital.

But if the state’s education department made a tactical mistake by gifting something used in kitchen the BJP, especially its leader, Sushil Kumar Modi and Shahnawaz Husain, landed their party into trouble by their actions.

For example, while maintaining that distribution of gifts among legislators is an old custom, SuMo said the Council Chairman and Assembly Speaker could convene a meeting to take a decision against distribution of costly gifts among legislators.

The moot question is: why this was not done between November 24, 2005 and June 16, 2013 when he wasa the deputy CM of the state and the opposition was virtually non-existent.

SuMo and Shahnawaz have given enough opportunity to the critics to question the double standards of the party. Only the Left, whom the saffron party criticizes bitterly, came out in shining colour by declaring that they had never accepted such gifts.

Once again it is for the media to explain as to why this good gesture of the three CPI ML MLAs did not get due prominence and why the BJP, which only indulged in doublespeaks got the space.