Thakur carves out political space

KS Tomar 

A six-month regime for any political party either in a state or at the Centre logically and rationally does not qualify for a critical assessment, as the new government has to fix its priorities and clear the baggage as well as the mess left by the previous government. 

People expect quick results but the financial burden coupled with an atmosphere of uncertainty created by any previous government takes time to set things in order.

Unfortunately, journalists are always in a hurry to pass a ‘biased’ judgement which, at times, defies logic though criticism based on facts and logic cannot be ignored at any cost.  

Take for example, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's six months in office. Opposition party leaders are busy slamming the government thereby ignoring the hopeless conditions and an atmosphere of loss of faith of people witnessed during their own government, which led to their downfall and defeat in the Assembly elections. Unfortunately, they conveniently forget it.

It was an uphill task for the Chief Minister to establish his authority as destiny had thrust the post on him following the defeat of the chief ministerial candidate, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal. Another certain contender was Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadha who was reportedly not spared by the Prime Minister and the party President, Amit Shah, as they needed him for the 2019 general elections to assist the poll machinery.

Initially, it was a free-for-all but the Chief Minister is gradually proving his critics wrong and taking on those bureaucrats who are unwilling to deliver results.

The Chief Minister feels hurt when opposition leaders describe him as 'Natiwala CM’ who can be credited for ending the Busheri or Maroon cap culture, which used to divide people of the state on regional basis.       

There is no denying the fact that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Mukesh Agnihotri, has emerged as one of the strongest critics of the Chief Minister, who has hit back with full authority. The CLP leader has been highlighting that the Chief Minister is guided solely by RSS elements in the CMO who are completely ignorant about the functioning of the state government, but they force the Chief Minister to fall in line, which has created a strong resentment among the people. PCC chief Sukhvinder Singh ‘Sukhu’ is also active in castigating the state government for its omissions.

BJP ministers do not lag behind in defending their Chief Minister and hold the Congress responsible for creating a financial mess in the state. This tradition of statements by ministers was started during the previous Congress regime.

Political analysts feel the Chief Minister is not opening any unwarranted front like holding politically motivated inquiries against the opposition leaders, which is always wastage of time. The previous Congress regime went after former Chief Minister Dhumal and other members of his family thereby registering several cases but the majority of them did not stand the scrutiny of various courts.

Sources in the BJP revealed the Chief Minister's detractors in the ruling legislature party and the organisation, who have not yet reconciled with the reality of seeing Thakur at the helm of affairs, still support the idea to register cases of political vendetta against former Congress ministers and MLAs, which will open a new front against him. 

The Chief Minister did face tortuous moments during the six-month period when the Kasauli shooting incident was mishandled by the police and the district administration, which led to the murder of a young female official during the removal of encroachments. It brought a bad name to the Thakur government. The Supreme Court also showed its annoyance over the casual approach adopted by the police and administrative officials.

As a face-saving device, the state government took belated action by suspending the Solan Superintendent of Police and a few other officials. The government has revoked the suspension of the Solan SP and the rest will follow in the near future. 

But the Opposition may raise the matter in the Vidan Sabha and make it an election issue in the 2019 general elections.

Thakur also had a harrowing experience of facing the water-crisis issue in Shimla, which was a crime committed by the successive previous regimes of the Congress and the BJP. A blunder was committed by the government when it permitted Mayor Kusum Sadret  to attend a conference in China.

On the other hand, the Chief Minister is counting  on several achievements of his six- month tenure to counter the allegations levelled  by the Opposition, which included reducing the pension-eligibility age from 80 to 70 years, approval of various projects worth more than Rs 4,365 crore from the Centre, including Rs 1,900 crore for the development of tourism, launching of  ‘Shakti App’ for the safety of women and employment generation schemes, and appointment of 53 consultants to execute national highways in the state. 

Thakur got a God-sent opportunity to become the Chief Minister hence he must perform and he will have to prove his worth in the 2019 elections to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party President Amit Shah and the Sangh Parivar leaders, who gave him a golden chance despite his lack of administrative experience, but primarily owing to his clean Image as well as a long career in state politics and the organisation.

(The writer is a senior journalist. Views are personal)