Stung by CM’s remarks, five HPCC secys write to Sukhu

SHIMLA: Close on the heels of resignation of two state Congress secretaries in protest against Chief Minister’s remarks on appointment of party functionaries, today five more secretaries Manjit Thakur, Amarinder Thakur, Ritesh Kapret, Mahesh Sharma and Deepak Rathore expressed their pain and anguish over the remarks which they said would only damage the party.

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 26

Close on the heels of resignation of two state Congress secretaries in protest against Chief Minister’s remarks on appointment of party functionaries, today five more secretaries Manjit Thakur, Amarinder Thakur, Ritesh Kapret, Mahesh Sharma and Deepak Rathore expressed their pain and anguish over the remarks which they said would only damage the party.

In a letter addressed to Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) Chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, the five HPCC Secretaries have pointed out that their contribution to the party over the years cannot be trivialised. “Outburst by party workers and leaders is construed as an act of indiscipline, invoking action but when it comes to public rebuke of party functionaries by the Chief Minister, what would it be termed as,” they quipped.

HPCC Secretaries - Pradeep Verma and Kusum Verma — had resigned from the state body on September 24. They met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh yesterday and said that they had been assured that they would get due respect but they had yet to take back their resignation.

Incidentally Manjit Thakur, a former Zila Parishad member, had contested the Assembly election from Rohru unsuccessfully when the party decided to field him in place of CM’s wife Pratibha Singh in 2009 by-poll. They wrote that they had held various elected posts like Zila Parisahd members and other important posts and such remarks by the Chief Minister that Secretaries who were non-entities had been appointed had hurt them.

Interestingly, the five HPCC secretaries have gone to the extent of saying that do sons of only senior party leaders have the right to get party posts and not the common party worker. “If you compare the caliber of the HPCC Secretaries with that of the chairmen and vice chairmen of boards and corporations, we are far more capable,” they wrote.

In their open letter they have also pointed out that while in Himachal the number of general secretaries is 60, in Punjab it is 307 and in Haryana 150. “Such remarks by the CM will only demoralise the party and prove to be a setback to the efforts being made by the party functionaries and workers to ensure mission repeat in the 2017 Assembly elections,” they said.