Finger-wagging Nirmala loses cool over no Modi photo in fair price shop

The finger-wagging minister lost her cool when people told her that they were drawing rice from a fair price shop as per their eligibility.

Hyderabad: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s arrogance in dealing with common people as well as officials was very much visible when she visited a fair price shop in Birkur village of Kamareddy district when she disapproved of everything that was said to her in reply to questions posed to her. The finger-wagging minister lost her cool when people told her that they were drawing rice from a fair price shop as per their eligibility and though in a controlled voice admonished a person when he tried to explain something to her. When she could not get the desired answers from people, she appeared to have turned her ire at the district collector asking him about the centre’s share in rice distributed to the poor.

Right from the word go, the Finance Minister started off an aggressive note without any reason and almost chided the district collector to check about the centre’s share in supply of rice and inform her within 30 minutes when she would call for a press conference. However, the minister seemed to have had second thoughts about the media interaction and called it off, since the State Finance Minister T Harish Rao addressed the media in Toopran and raised several issues seeking explanations from the union Finance Minister. The union Minister, perhaps, wanted to send the message across that Telangana Government was only changing the names of central schemes and projecting them as state government’s initiatives.

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But with Harish Rao firing salvo after salvo listing out how the Centre had in fact copied Telangana schemes and sought a reply from the visiting union Minister, the latter seemed to have dropped the idea of interacting with media, which was bound to draw her attention to Harish Rao’s questions.

During her visit, she took objection over absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph at the fair price shop. What was interesting was that she was only insisting on shooting the questions while wagging a disapproving finger at people and the officials, but was not ready to listen to any explanations, as video cameras rolled recording her outbursts. When the district collector Patil tried to explain about the estimated share of the Central government in one kg rice, she asked him to get correct information about it and inform her within half an hour. As part of her three-day visit to Telangana, she came to the district to interact with the party cadre.

“The photograph of the Prime Minister should be seen at the shop by the time I visit the district next time”, she said.

When the shop dealer tried to speak with a beneficiary in an intimidated manner in front of her, the union Minister intervened and asked the Collector to take necessary action against the dealer. “How can he speak like that in front of us?” she asked.

Earlier in the morning, mild tension prevailed when scores of activists of NSUI tried to stop the convoy of the Finance Minister at Ambedkar statue crossroads in Banswada to protest against the questioning of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). Policemen escorting her convoy dispersed the NSUI activists. After completing her visit in Zaheerabad on Thursday, she was proceeding to Banswada when the NSUI activists tried to stop her convoy. BJP supporters who were following the convoy picked up heated arguments with NSUI workers. The police, however, pacified the irate BJP supporters.