No more ‘chargesheets’: BJP rally signals end of an era

The ritual of the Opposition preparing a chargesheet highlighting the acts of omission and commission by the state government, an annual feature in Himachal politics for decades, has now become a thing of the past.

In a deviation from the past, the BJP this time chose to hold protest rally at Dharamsala on December 4, during the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha. The Congress government will complete three years on December 11, which will be observed in the form of the Jan Sankalp Sammelan at Mandi.

“This time, we did not prepare a chargesheet but registered the protest of the common man against the anti-people polices of the Sukhu regime by holding a massive rally at Dharamsala,” said Rajeev Bindal, state BJP president. He added that the huge turnout at the rally was a clear indication of the mounting resentment against the Congress rule which has been marked by mafia raj, be it liquor, mining, land or forest.

This marked shift in the stance of the BJP has virtually put an end to the customary practice of preparing a chargesheet. It was during the tenures of former Chief Ministers Virbhadra Singh and Prem Kumar Dhumal between 1998 to 2017 that the chargesheets prepared by the party in Opposition was handed over to the Vigilance Bureau for investigation. In fact, this even resulted in personal animosity between Virbhadra and Dhumal being at its worst.

It was part of the Vigilance probe which culminated in Anurag Thakur, the Hamirpur MP, facing serious charges in his capacity as president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. Almost half a dozen cases were registered against him by the Vigilance Bureau, especially with regard to the construction of the international cricket stadium at Dharamsala which has now become a major tourist attraction.

On October 29, 2022, the Congress had prepared a chargesheet against the then BJP regime headed by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The 23-page chargesheet ‘Loot ki Choot’ was released in the presence of Congress leader Pawan Khera by senior state leaders Sukhvinder Sigh Sukhu and Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri.

After a generational shift in the BJP when Jai Ram Thakur became the Chief Minister for the first time in 2017, this “politics of vendetta” came to an end. It goes to the credit of Thakur that he categorically said that it is high time that this politics of vendetta is stopped. Many leaders, both from the Congress and the BJP, faced Vigilance cases based on the allegations contained in the chargesheet prepared by the Opposition party.

In a welcome change, even Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu after assuming power in December 2022 did not get any of the allegations contained in the chargesheet prepared by the Congress probed by the Vigilance Bureau. This new trend not only brought an end to the politics of vendetta but also reduced the importance of the Vigilance Bureau which was used by successive regimes to hit out at political opponents.