Campaign committee chief for the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, speaks to The Hindu’s Nistula Hebbar on the upcoming Assembly polls in the hill State.
How do you see the Aam Aadmi Party’s [AAP] plans of entering the electoral fray in Himachal Pradesh?
In a democracy, whichever party enters the fray, they are free to do so. This is not the first time it’s happening in Himachal Pradesh that a third party, other than the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], has tried to enter the contest, especially in the Assembly polls. Last time, there was a Morcha [Loktantrik Morcha Himachal Pradesh], which took 4-5% of votes. Before that, Pandit Sukh Ram’s party was there, which took around 6% of the vote, etc. Many times, people who don’t get tickets from the main two parties, join such outfits. You will see that in the next couple of months, hardly anyone will join the AAP. Close to the polls, on being denied tickets, many hopefuls will join such outfits. The people of Himachal also know this.
Will it not affect the balance in a bipolar contest?
During the Assembly polls, two [types of] Congress and BJP [candidates] are in the fray — those who get party tickets, [and] others who switch over or fight independently. This always happens but the contest is always between the two main parties.
What is it that you will be going to the people with, as campaign committee chief?
I believe that it’s after 40 years that we are getting new leadership in the Himachal Congress. It was in 1982 that Vir Bhadra Singh- ji became Chief Minister and occupied leadership positions. Now, I have been appointed as campaign committee chief. For us, power is not an end in itself, we want to come to power to make a difference to the system and to governance. We are going ask for votes for a chance to effect that systemic change.
But the new Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Pratibha Singh, is the late Vir Bhadra Singh's wife...so where is the new leadership?
She is also part of the new leadership. She has been an MP representing the party and now she has been made State unit chief. She represents the Congress’ ideology and the new team around her reflects the same. Our aim is to dislodge the Jairam Thakur-led BJP government, and the bypoll results of last year have made it clear that the people of Himachal, who are an aware electorate, understand the somnolent nature of that government.
Anything specific that you will be offering?
Himachal Pradesh, despite not having a huge population, has the fifth highest unemployment rate. We will bring in programmes to address that issue of not just providing employment, but self-employment.
For a total of 1,800 posts of junior office assistants, two lakh youth competed, and there is regular cheating, [and a] paper leak mafia that’s subverting the recruitment process. We will clean that up.
We promise to bring in a ‘Transparency Act’ under which all public representatives and government servants will have to disclose assets every year; [and] acquisition of property, source of funds will have to be disclosed. We will also bring in a “Responsibility Act”, wherein officials and government servants will be held responsible for the quality of services rendered by the government. We are hoping to make government and governmental systems accountable to the people.
Much of Himachal is also rural...anything for them?
In Himachal, we have what is a two-house concept, of strong roots in villages apart from working in small towns. For rural Himachal, we have come up with the guaranteed procurement of at least 10 litres of milk per household every day, hiking the procurement rate of cow milk from ₹40 [per litre] to ₹ 80, and buffalo milk from ₹ 60 [per litre] to ₹ 100, while also not putting the burden on the consumer. We plan to set up chilling plants every 20 km, and a processing plant in every district. This will require an outlay of ₹ 100 crore. We plan to raise taxes on alcohol up to ₹ 10 per unit to buy milk under the new scheme — basically making alcohol dearer and milk abundant.
