Himachal Speaker acting as govt puppet, should be impartial: Jai Ram Thakur

Shimla, June 25

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur today alleged that Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania was working on the directions of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to save the Congress government.

Bid to save firing accused: Bindal

• BJP state president Rajeev Bindal on Tuesday accused the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government of trying to save the persons behind the firing incident in Bilaspur
• Despite massive protests, the mastermind of the firing incident has not been arrested yet. It shows the Congress government is trying to save the culprits, alleged Bindal
• He claimed the Bilaspur incident had made the whole state panicky as the firing took place outside the court premises
• Bindal said that if attempts were made to cover up the matter, the BJP would launch a statewide stir

“He is supposed to take decisions impartially, but he’s acting as a puppet of the government. I am using such words for the first time but I have been left with no choice,” said Thakur after the BJP took out a silent march protesting the imposition of Emergency by the Congress government on June 25, 1975.

The BJP and the Congress are trading charges after Thakur commented a few days ago that the High Court order on the fate of the six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries was imminent, followed by Sukhu’s statement that nine BJP MLAs could be disqualified from the Vidhan Sabha over indiscipline in the House during the Budget session.

“It appears the Congress is thinking on these lines if there’s an adverse decision by the High Court on the CPS matter. Already, action has been taken in this regard when 15 MLAs were suspended. Now, they can’t be suspended or disqualified,” said Thakur.

He alleged that the law and order situation in the state had deteriorated under the Congress government. “In the past 16-18 months, there have been over 300 rapes and around 150 murders in the state. And recently we saw a UP, Bihar like firing incident outside a judicial complex. The BJP has decided to go to the public over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state,” he added.

Thakur said that drug abuse had become rampant in the state but the government was not taking it seriously. He added that the Congress had raised so much noise during the elections that the BJP would change or suspend the Constitution if it won more than 400 seats, forgetting that it was the Congress that had imposed Emergency in the country.