First-time CM Jai Ram Thakur completes three years in office this week. Thakur spoke to Ashwani Sharma at his official residence, Oakover, in Shimla on battling Covid and sustainable development in the hill state. Excerpts:
How has it been as a first-time CM?
We have given a government totally committed to the public cause, ensuring all-round development free from corruption. We have looked after the welfare of all vulnerable sections. Unfortunately, Covid disrupted our targets to a great extent. But we have tried to move ahead, not allowing the pandemic to derail our resolve.
What is your single-biggest achievement?
I really feel proud of changing the political culture. I have been successful in ending the politics of vendetta. Every time there was a power change, there used to be cases filed against political opponents. Our own previous governments did that, though the Congress was far more brazen. A lot of valuable time of the government, its resources and energy used to be wasted in contesting these cases in courts . The state exchequer used to be drained, spending crores to hire the country’s top lawyers and to meet other cost. I have closed this chapter for good.
Congress has blamed you for mishandling the pandemic.
It’s very sad and unfortunate to note how the Congress tried to make Covid a political issue. The whole world is fighting the pandemic. It’s not India alone or our state grappling with its spread. But the Congress feels it’s the BJP’s creation. Why can’t they see the challenges posed to the lives of the people, our economy and future development? Because, the Congress has no issue against the BJP government, they believe Covid is the easiest thing to raise and play politics around.
Why is there a sudden Covid surge in Himachal?
Some states had an early surge and few went through its peak later. Luckily, HP showed up as a better managed state initially. It only saw a high surge in November –December. The reasons are large weddings and mass celebrations during. People became careless and complacent. We took strong steps like imposing night curfew in four hotspot districts, restricting social gatherings to below 50 people and scaled down other activities. The number of fresh cases has come down to 300-350 a day compared to 900-980 before.
How has Covid impacted development and economy?
It has really impacted us badly. Of the three years, my one year is lost, targets got disrupted and projects got delayed. Now we have been able to revive the pace and put many projects back on track. New schemes worth almost Rs 100 -150 crore in every assembly constituency have been launched.
The state is pushing forward its plan for Rs 10,000 crore bulk drug park—three of these have been proposed by the Centre in different states. I met PM Modi and the Union minister of chemicals and explained why HP needs this project for bulk manfucaturing of medicines. I feel it alone will be the biggest game-changer.
How are you preparing for the 2022 assembly polls?
We don’t work for the polls when they are nearing. In 2019 , we won all four Lok Sabha seats in the state with a record margin and highest vote percentage. We also won two bypolls. Now we are set for the panchayat polls, which I can assure you the BJP will sweep. You will see in 2022, we will make history by returning to power for the second term—something that has never happened before in Himachal Pradesh.
