Peak Perspective: Spectre of charge

Peak Perspective: Spectre of charge-sheet, witch hunt politics returns to haunt Himachal

Election countdown triggers war of allegations, probes & counterclaims

The spectre of ‘charge-sheet’ and ‘witch hunt’ politics seems to have returned to haunt Himachal politicians, as the Congress and the BJP gear up for the Vidhan Sabha elections due in November next year.

Political temperatures have started soaring in the hill state with both Congress and BJP adopting aggressive postures ahead of the Assembly poll. As neither the Congress nor the BJP has been able to repeat government in Himachal since 1985, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is endeavouring to reverse this trend.

While the BJP is in the process of preparing a charge-sheet against the state government, the Congress has decided to counter it by releasing a White Paper on alleged irregularities committed by the previous BJP government headed by Jai Ram Thakur.

Himachal has had a long history of charge-sheet politics with the Opposition targeting the ruling party by highlighting the alleged acts of omission and commission committed by the incumbent state government. The charge-sheets submitted during the tenures of former Chief Ministers Virbhadra Singh and Prem Kumar Dhumal between 1998 and 2017 were handed over to the Vigilance Bureau on being voted to power with accusations of political vendetta.

The tenures Virbhadra Singh and Prem Kumar Dhumal saw the registration of cases against senior leaders, including incumbent Hamirpur MP and Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur, who faced six cases as regards the construction of the international cricket stadium at Dharamsala.

In fact, Jai Ram Thakur on assuming office as Chief Minister in 2017 had clearly spelt out his plans to shun the past practice of using a charge-sheet to hit out at political opponents. It was after almost two decades that Himachal did not witness the ‘politics of charge-sheet’ and witch hunting. Jai Ram often listed this change in political approach as one of his big achievements during the five-year BJP rule.

The BJP, which did not prepare a charge-sheet against the Congress government in the past three years, has now decided to prepare one. On July 15, state BJP president Rajeev Bindal had constituted a charge-sheet committee to collect evidence of alleged corruption, failures, irregularities, anti-people decisions and unfulfilled promises. Apart from Bindal and Jai Ram, party MPs and MLAs and other senior leaders are part of this charge-sheet committee.

Sukhu sensed that the BJP was going to launch an onslaught ahead of the Assembly poll and announced that a committee would be constituted in the next Cabinet meeting to prepare a White Paper on the five-year rule of the previous BJP government.

The BJP has accused the Chief Minister of unleashing political vendetta against his political opponents. It points out that cases have been registered against Bindal, Dharamsala MLA Sudhir Sharma and Hamirpur MLA Ashish Sharma, former Dehra MLA Hoshiyar Singh and Rajinder Rana and other leaders.

The BJP leaders held a protest in Shimla on Wednesday and tried to march to the Chief Minister’s official residence. The Dharamsala MLA hit out at the Chief Minister for misusing investigating agencies to target and register cases against BJP leaders.

The BJP has warned government officials to desist from fabricating false cases against its leaders as on its return to power, their accountability would be fixed. The political slugfest in the coming months is likely to intensify as the two parties gear up for the electoral battle due next year.