Weight and watch

Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for road transport and highways, continues to fight a battle, not just with his weight, but also his opponents’ jabs relating to it. After Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Rs 1.25-lakh-crore special package for the state as a mere re-packaging of earlier schemes, Gadkari challenged Kumar to a televised debate on every project under the special package and asserted that the Centre had prepared all the details under the scheme. Immediately thereafter, Kumar dissed the challenge on Twitter saying, “Gadkari has a habit of punching above his weight. Before debating the whole package, he should first answer questions relating to his department,” adding that the embattled minister’s department would hog the biggest share of the package.