Munish Sood
Mandi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government, accusing Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of pushing the state administration into disarray by fostering internal power struggles and systematically demoralising the bureaucracy.
In a strongly worded press statement, senior BJP spokesperson Trilok Kapoor alleged that under the façade of “systemic change,” the Sukhu government has reduced governance to intimidation, political vendetta, and administrative confusion. He said the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that honest and duty-bound officers are feeling harassed and insecure, while institutional dignity is being eroded at every level.
Kapoor cited a series of incidents to underline what he termed as the government’s complete loss of control over the administrative machinery. He pointed to the manner in which senior woman IPS officer Ilma Afroz was allegedly forced to proceed on leave under political pressure, calling it a direct contradiction of the Congress government’s claims of women empowerment.
He further alleged that an attempt was made to silence Secretariat employees by initiating a privilege motion against them, while the state witnessed a “dark day” when senior IAS officer Omkar Sharma was allegedly humiliated, triggering widespread anxiety within the bureaucratic establishment.
“The situation reached a breaking point,” Kapoor said, “when Electricity Board officer Vimal Negi died after being subjected to relentless pressure and harassment. This tragic incident exposes the cruelty and insensitivity of the prevailing system.”
According to the BJP, the crisis is not merely administrative but deeply political, rooted in factionalism within the ruling Congress itself. Kapoor accused Chief Minister Sukhu of deliberately using officers as instruments to target and politically weaken his own ministers and MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh, and Ayush Minister Yadvinder Goma.
He said this internal power struggle has spilled into the public domain, resulting in repeated confrontations between ministers and officers. Kapoor referred to alleged incidents involving Minister Anirudh Singh and NHAI officials, reported threats by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri to officers, and regional remarks by Vikramaditya Singh targeting “outsider” IAS officers.
The latest episode, he said, is the privilege motion moved by Minister Yadvinder Goma against Mandi Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan, which the BJP described as part of a sustained pattern of pressure tactics against the bureaucracy. “The Chief Minister is exerting double pressure—on ministers as well as officers—leading to total administrative paralysis across the state,” Kapoor alleged.
While honest officers are allegedly being crushed under factional politics, Kapoor claimed that criminal elements are operating with impunity. He described the law-and-order situation in industrial belts such as Baddi, Bilaspur, and Una as “explosive,” alleging that open gang rivalries involving former Congress legislators Bamber Thakur and Satpal Raizada have exposed the collapse of the rule of law.
“When ministers threaten officers and political figures are linked to gang conflicts, governance ceases to exist. What remains is jungle raj,” Kapoor asserted, adding that development has stalled and the common citizen is suffering amid rising crime and administrative instability.
The BJP strongly condemned what it termed as authoritarian and faction-driven governance and warned the Chief Minister against using the state’s administrative machinery as a shield to settle internal political scores.
“If this arrogance and misuse of power continues,” Kapoor warned, “the people of Himachal Pradesh will decisively respond and uproot this system built on fear, division, and political vendetta.”
