As CM Sukhu goes about cancelling Jai Ram regime institutions, Congress-BJP row hits a flashpoint

Over the last few weeks the BJP has stepped up its protests against the Sukhu government against its continuing bid to close such institutions, calling it “arbitrary” and “anti-development”. On its part, the government has justified its move as “necessary in public interest”.

On Monday, a BJP delegation led by Leader of Opposition in the Himachal Assembly Jai Ram Thakur and state BJP chief Suresh Kashyap, submitted a memorandum to the newly-appointed Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla against the closure of these institutions.

According to the memorandum, over 900 government institutions opened during the Jai Ram regime have been closed by the Congress government so far.

Significantly, one of the first decisions that Sukhu took after taking charge as the CM on December 11 last year, was to shut down institutions and offices notified or upgraded after April 1, 2022. These entities belonged to various government departments and organisations including the PWD, power, finance, police booths, schools and healthcare units, among others.

The Sukhu government argued that these government entities had been notified by the BJP government arbitrarily as part of “vote bank politics” just ahead of the November 2022 Assembly polls without providing financial resources for their establishment and operation. It charged that these institutions existed just on paper and that no recruitments were made for them.

This immediately erupted in a row between the two sides, with the BJP targeting Sukhu for allegedly playing “vendetta politics at the cost of public interest”.

Citing the instance of the government’s latest move to close 19 degree colleges, the Sukhu camp said that each of them had less than 60 students. The government also said the teachers and students in these colleges will be transferred to nearby institutions.

“It is embarrassing that BJP was only concerned with playing politics. It came to our notice that one of the degree colleges had only 4 enrolments. It was then decided that they need to be shut down because they did not serve any purpose except political purpose,” said Naresh Chauhan, principal media advisor to the CM. “We have even allowed institutions, that have at least 60 students, to operate. The interests of students are primary for us and we will ensure that the opportunities for them are maximised.”

In the Budget Session of the state Assembly that got underway Tuesday, the Treasury and Opposition benches are set to take on each other fiercely on the row.

Hitting out at the Sukhu government, Jai Ram charged: “Several institutions that had been running for a long time have been shut down. This shows that the government is only concerned with settling political scores. They are not understanding that there is a sense of anger and discontent among the public. If there is no option, people will come to the streets to protest. We will raise their voice and several other issues in the session as well.”

In state political circles the closure of the institutions has been attributed to CM Sukhu’s bid to take strong decisions on various issues. The BJP has however called Sukhu a “weak CM” being allegedly controlled by the Congress high command.