CM, Hooda spat gets ugly, leaders trade charges on Cong ‘misrule’

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

The spat between Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his predecessor Bhupinder Singh Hooda got uglier today with both taking on each other.

The first-time Chief Minister Khattar, referring to alleged acts of omission and commission during the Congress’ 10-year rule, asserted that Hooda’s policy of “offence is the best defence would be of little use”.

Hooda, for his part, dared the BJP government to order investigation into thousands of decisions taken by him during his rule.

“As the misdeeds committed during Hooda’s regime are being exposed one by one, he is getting nervous and fearing that he might be behind bars. He is following the policy of ‘offence is the best defense’, but this will not benefit him,” the CM told the media after presiding over the Civil Military Liaison conference here today.

The Congress leader, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a party meeting here, said: “I have already said that let the government do whatever it wants. Maine toh bisyoon hazaar faisle kiye hai, har faisla nikal te rahein, jaanch dete rahain (During my tenure, I took 20,000 decisions. Let them single out every decision and order probe).”

“This government believes in political vendetta. As the BJP has nothing to show during 20 months of its rule, it is pursuing vendetta against me to divert the public attention,” the former CM alleged.

Khattar, however, denied Hooda’s charge. “Several anomalies committed during the regime of the previous Congress government have surfaced and these are being investigated.”

Earlier this month, the State Vigilance Bureau had registered a case of cheating and corruption against then chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and other HUDA officials for illegally re-alloting a plot to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula in 2005.