His comments were greeted with a mix of shock and dismay by the audience, which comprised all party legislators and Ministers. Ananth Kumar made these comments while inaugurating a two-day training camp of the party at Bhopal recently. After making these remarks, Ananth Kumar turned towards the Chief Minister, who was seated on the dais, and urged him to replace the “drunkard, late-riser and lecherous” ministers with young and energetic legislators

This is for the second time that Ananth Kumar made derogatory remarks about MP Ministers from a public platform. Some time back, while addressing the state executive meeting of the state BJP, he had launched a blistering attack on the “tainted ministers” and told the CM to give marching orders to them. After this, it was speculated that quite a few heads may roll in the MP ministry. It was expected that at least the ministers who were facing Lokayukta probe on graft charges would be asked to quit. But only one Minister, the Health Minister Anoop Mishra was sacked. Mishra, who happens to be the nephew of veteran BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee, was accused of shielding his son and other relatives, allegedly involved in a murder.

Many observers expected that senior Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya would be axed. On the orders of an Indore court, the state Lokayukta is probing his role in a land scam. In its interim report, submitted to the court, the Lokayukta has held a BJP legislator, considered to be the right-hand man of Vijayvargiya, guilty. And Vijayvargiya is not the only Minister who is facing Lokayukta probe. There are quite a few others too.

After the inaugural session of the training camp, Ananth Kumar told newspersons that the performance of the Ministers and the legislators would be assessed by the Chief Minister, the party organisation and he himself. Within a fortnight, a mechanism would be evolved for this purpose. He said that the Ministers and legislators should concentrate on two goals: One, winning the 2013 Assembly polls and Two, fulfilling the promises made during the run-up to the 2008 polls.

Ananth Kumar, however, showered fulsome praise on the Chief Minister and asked the Ministers to emulate his life-style, ideology and work ethics. Observers feel that by praising the CM sky-high and giving a tongue-lashing to the Ministers, Ananth Kumar, for all practical purposes, had given the CM a freehand to reconstitute his council of Ministers.

Most of the Ministers were resentful of Ananth Kumar's remarks. A senior Minister, on condition of anonymity, said “What he said might be true of a couple of Ministers or legislators. But we all are feeling demoralised and humiliated. The question is whether the MLAs or the Ministers Ananth Kumar is referring to became drunkards and lecherous and corrupt overnight. If they enjoyed a poor reputation, why were they given tickets and why were they made Ministers. And if they turned baddies after becoming legislators or Ministers, why did the leadership shut its eyes to their activities and behaviour for so long?”

In fact, the Ministers and legislators were critical of the very concept of the “training camp”. “We were bombarded with speeches for two long days—the same boring stuff we have been hearing for several years now. What is the use of such exercises, when the leaders speak and we listen like school children? Even the school children are better off. They can at least ask questions. We were not even allowed to do that”, a legislator says.

The concluding session of the two-day training camp was addressed by the party chief Nitin Gadkari. After his speech at the session, he interacted with the Ministers at the official residence of the Chief Minister. Gadkari told Ministers and legislators, how he began his co-operative enterprise with a capital of Rs. one lakh and how it had grown into a Rs. 500 crore entity and was on its way to becoming a Rs. 1000 crore one. He quizzed the Ministers about the agriculture growth and also the sources of revenue of various departments and also their achievements.

Most of the Ministers and legislators were of the view of such camps had little utility and were a waste of time and resources. And the way the national leaders humiliated them in public, would only make the party and its leaders a subject of ridicule in the public eye. (IPA Service)