By B.K. Chum in Chandigarh
Situations never remain static. The latest example is of Himachal Pradesh. The state’s ruling BJP leadership was euphoric over the Akali-BJP’s recent electoral victory in Punjab hoping it would favourably impact the party’s prospects in the state Assembly elections to be held by 2012 end. But the euphoria is waning due to the past few weeks’ developments as these have cast dark shadow on Dhumal government’s functioning. The government has increasingly been targeted by its detractors within the ruling party and by the opposition.
The political health of the ruling party is also poorer than that of the ailing Congress. It started with the attacks on Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his government not only by the BJP rebels and the former Chief Minister and national BJP vice-president Shanta Kumar’s loyalists but also by the Congress. The focus of attacks has been on corruption, illegal land deals and alleged shielding of the corrupt by the ruling leadership. Shanta Kumar who has a strong base in the state’s biggest and politically important Kangra district even dissociated himself from the affairs of the state BJP.
Expectedly, the charges against Dhumal government’s functioning were denied by the ruling leadership as also by the central leadership. The latter even gave a clean chit to Dhumal which was, however, ridiculed by his detractors.
Initially, the corruption charges appeared unconvincing as most of them were of a general nature, non-specific and lacked hard evidence.
But since the past few weeks, specific cases of corruption have started coming to light. For instance, the multi-crore pulses scam involving some top officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation. The state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau which registered a case found serious irregularities committed in the procurement of pulses which caused huge losses to the government. .
Then there was the hard-hitting report by the BJP’s student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad about the land scam. In its national-level survey of professional institutions in the country, the ABVP severely indicted the Dhumal government for opening substandard private universities in the state, apparently to facilitate transfer of agriculture land to promoters who could not legally acquire it under the state laws. It said that the managements of all universities had purchased land from poor farmers by posing as educational charitable trusts in the documents submitted to the government.
Now is the damaging report of the Commission inquiring into benami land deals in violation of the norms. The one-man Commission headed by Justice D.P.Sood (retd) has not only recommended scrapping of the HP Apartment and Property Regulation Act but has also suggested vesting of the land of 42 promoters in the government for violating Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act. It has stated that a majority of the builders are creating a concrete jungle and spoiling the natural environment. It has specified some cases where the builders have earned huge profits by reselling the land and causing losses to the state exchequer.
Many of these illegal land deals have taken place not only during the BJP rule but a large number of them had also taken place during the former Congress regime.
It is not only on the issues of corruption, land deals and allegedly shielding the corrupt that the Dhumal government is facing flak from inside and outside the ruling party but the state’s financial management has also come under attack of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). In its report presented to the Assembly last week, the CAG pulled up the state government for mounting fiscal liabilities. It not only criticized the high expenditure on salaries, non-development, delays in utilization of funds under central schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and faulty implementation of PDS schemes but also expressed concern over state’s mounting debt burden.
The incidents tend to dent the claims built assiduously over the last five years about the Dhumal government’s good governance. These also highlight the growing anti-incumbency trend.
The question is: Will the faction-ridden Congress and the BJP’s breakaway Himachal Lokhit Party be able to effectively use the above issues against the Dhumal-led BJP in the elections? The question needs to be examined by having a close look at the state of the ruling party and also of the Congress.
The BJP’s health has been deteriorating over the time. The Shanta Kumar loyalists had been raising their voice against their sidelining by the dominant ruling leadership. Shanta Kumar has also been publicly expressing his reservations about the functioning of the government. The ruling party has been hit by revolts. First it was its MP Rajan Sushant who launched a tirade against the Chief Minister. He has since been suspended by the party. Then the dissidents comprising an influential section of the party first formed Himachal Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha to fight corruption and then quit the party to form Himachal Lokhit Party under the leadership of the former MP Maheshwar Singh.
Though not in ICU, the faction-ridden state Congress also finds its health in an unenviable state. The top leaders of its organizational and legislative wings do not enjoy state-wide mass support like the former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh enjoys. He is still the biggest vote catcher and can pose a formidable challenge to the BJP in the elections. But the moot question is whether the party high command will send him back to the state and also whether it will be able to forge semblance of unity among the party’s feuding factions at least for fighting the elections.
Experience of Punjab elections shows that it is not the anti-incumbency alone which decides the outcome of elections. The organizational health of the political parties and the effectiveness of their topmost leaders also play a key role in deciding the outcome. On whether the BJP or the Congress, would meet these criteria will determine the outcome of the Himachal Assembly elections. (IPA Service)
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