This Ministerial one raised to chief secretarial status in his party recently called on an indoor patient at a hospital in the city. Two other visitors too shortly appeared at the bedside of the patient. One of them was the former strongman and the other was a Betel leaf Western councillor, once a somebody now shorn of his plume. 


The threesome dutifully made solicitous inquiries from the patient and then fell into small talk. The Western councillor suddenly confronted the Ministerial one with a bold accusation. “You all gave us shabby treatment…what wrong have we done?  Is this what we are getting in return for the blood and sweat we have been shedding for the party?”

The Ministerial one, of course, had ready answers to the questions raised by the disgruntled local politico. But the former strongman intervened saying “This is not the place to discuss our differences.” He hurriedly took away the belligerent politico pre-empting a possible heated exchange that could lead to an ugly scene.