In a bizarre incident which could very well question sanity of ageing Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar (74), the chief minister placed a flower pot on the head of his own principal secretary and senior IAS officer Dr S Siddharth at an event.
The incident took place at the L N Mishra Institute in Patna, where the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of projects worth about Rs 10 crore and handed over appointment letters to 20 newly appointed faculty members.
Dr Siddharth, who also holds charge of additional chief secretary education and director of LN Mishra Institute of Social and Economic Change was welcoming Nitish Kumar by presenting a flower pot. Kumar accepted the pot and abruptly placed it on the head of Siddharth leaving everyone shocked on the stage.
Siddharth, withering at the CM's behaviour, immediately removed the pot from his head and left, during which the people present there started smiling.
A clip of the entire incident went viral on social media. This incident has also been added to the list of incidents of abnormal behaviour by Chief Minister Nitish.
The RJD, the main opposition party in the state, has raised questions about Nitish's mental condition.
RJD spokesperson Mrutyunjay Tiwari said the incident was shocking and shameful.
“His activities are embarrassing the state. This shows that his mind is not under their control. He is being controlled by a group of bureaucrats. He is the weakest Chief Minister of Bihar so far,” Tiwari said.
Who is Dr S Siddharth?
Dr Siddharth is a 1991 batch IAS officer who is an IIT Delhi alumni with both B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering in 1987 and a doctoral degree in Information Technology.
He furthered studied MBA from the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad in 1989. He has continued his education as he is currently pursuing his second PhD in Economics from Banaras Hindu University.
A trainee pilot, a wildlife photographer, painter and a cartoonist, Siddharth is a multitalented officer.
A native of Tamilnadu, Siddharth is known for conducting online random checks on teachers. He organised video calls with teachers and expose those who are not conducting proper classes. Many of his videos are viral and these acts of his have controlled irregularities in education department to some extent.
Nitish has done it before also
Earlier, in a similar incident, CM Nitish Kumar had suddenly left the stage before the national anthem during the inauguration of the ‘Sepak Takra World Cup' in Patna in March.
In November last year, he had tried to touch Prime Minister Narendra Modi's feet at a public event in Darbhanga. At the same time, during the national anthem in an event, when everyone was in attention posture, Nitish joined hands and started greeting everyone virtually showing disrespect to the national anthem.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.
