Click to play videoNew Delhi: A turf war is on between two ministers in the Manmohan Singh government on an issue close to the heart of late Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi.
The two UPA ministers have chosen to war over the ‘Panchayati Raj’ phenomenon, which was envisioned by former Congress chief and the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1980s.
On April 24, 1993 the Constitutional 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions.
Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and Minister for Women and Child Welfare, Renuka Chowdhury are locked in a war of words over whose domain the subject lies under.
In August, the Women and Child Welfare Ministry had issued a full page advertisement in national dailies on Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary.
The advertisements had listed reservation for women in local bodies and panchayats as one of the main achievements of the former PM.
That had made the Panchayati Raj Minister, Aiyar see red. He was offended that Chowdhury had encroached on his core territory.
The Panchayati Raj minister shot a letter to the Women and Child Development minister telling her that she was presiding over Aiyar’s ministry erroneously.
The Panchayati Raj Minister has another axe to grind with the lady minister. His ministry’s efforts it seems run into adamant roadblocks created by total distrust of the ‘panchayats’ or village councils from Chowdhury’s ministry.
“Yes I have written a letter to her and sought a meeting with her. We can have breakfast and lunch at her place…but so far, I have not received any reply from her,” Aiyar said.
Aiyar’s colleagues in the union council do not take him seriously as is evident from Renuka Chowdhury’s reply.
“No one takes him seriously, he keeps saying this item and that item is under my domain and stuff like that. No one takes him seriously,” said the Women and Child Welfare Minister as she laughed away any seriousness to Aiyar’s remarks.
Clearly, Aiyar is upset that not only is his domain encroached upon, but the issue carries no weight with the so-called trespassers too.
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