Politics and governance in Himachal Pradesh

CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is on a roll, but complacency could lead to trouble because governance alone is not the key to a successful tenure - politics is, as well

In March this year, days before Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu presented his first Budget, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) gave in-principle approval to a four-lane road project from Shimla to Mataur, which is expected to cost around Rs 10,000 crore, and another four-lane road project from Pathankot to Mandi, to cost Rs 12,000 crore. To alleviate concerns that Himachal Pradesh could be headed the Joshimath way, the NHAI will present a concept paper on how to reduce and prevent landslides caused by road expansion in the state and invest Rs 300 crore in the project.

Mr Sukhu is on a roll. He called officials to explain why several road projects in the state had been held up (mainly on account of land acquisition) and demanded a solution within 30 days. He got one in 26. The state is now following the Old Pension Scheme.

The Budget has implemented many promises he had made in the election campaign three months ago: A Rs 1,500 per month allowance to women-headed families below a certain income threshold, and a “cow cess” to fund a minimum support price for milk. “The procurement of milk in the state is chaotic. We will streamline it, offer to buy 10 kilos from every family, set up chilling plants, and resell it in the market at a subsidy: We will recover costs by levying a cess on the sale of alcohol,” he had told Business Standard before the elections.

That is now a reality. The state is on a tourism-promotion blitzkrieg:  Acknowle­dging that the terrain of the state limits the construction of airports, he is promoting heli-ports — a taxi service operated by helicopters from Chandigarh that will put well-heeled tourists within half an hour of many tourist destinations currently hard to access. Manali is one of the places sought out by visitors — but neither Kullu nor Manali has a hotel that qualifies for the five-star tag. He is determined to change that.

In the midst of all this, Mr Sukhu has been quietly doing something that has taken many by surprise: He is paying regular visits to orphanages, for which there is a budgetary allocation. He spends most holidays with children there and has pledged to improve the establishments housing them.

The chief minister knows what struggle is. He used to haul crates of milk to make a living in the early years and later graduated to selling milk. When times got tough, he became a watchman with the state electricity department, even got an offer from the state electricity board for the post of a TMate (equivalent to a helper). His father was a driver with the state bus transport corporation. He has been passionate about improving the lives of the people he saw around him. “Our life is very difficult. I just want everyone to have an equal chance,” he once told Business Standard. “A man should never forget his past, no matter how high a position he may have attained,” he tweeted on the day he presented the Budget — and he came to the secretariat in his old Alto he had bought when he became MLA for the first time.

Virbhadra Singh, the towering Congress leader from the state, and Mr Sukhu were like chalk and cheese because they came from such different backgrounds. Virbhadra (and his family) was royalty. He was the last raja of the Rampur-Bushehr dynasty, and was the previous Congress chief minister in 2017, when the party was ousted from power after the Assembly elections. On the other hand, he was also a five-time chief minister, a two-term minister of state in the Union government, and a politician who became MP first in 1962. Mr Sukhu had his own band of men but they were always brushed aside because of Virbhadra’s somewhat autocratic style of functioning.

A charge against Mr Sukhu is that he has begun to pack the government — and party — with his own men, pushing aside those in the raja camp. He accepts and owns this, and says those who helped him in his political journey were cast aside by royalty and all he is trying to do is correct that injustice.

But this will inevitably have consequences. The Assembly elections were, after all, won narrowly (Prime Minister Narendra Modi told BJP workers they might not have succeeded in forming the government but had won the people’s hearts as the narrow vote share margin testified). The BJP is hard on the government’s heels. No punitive action has been taken by the party against anyone, not even former chief minister Jairam Thakur, suggesting he might try to essay a political revival.

Mr Sukhu’s complacency could lead to trouble. Factionalism is a luxury he cannot afford. Governance alone is not the key to a successful tenure — politics is, as well.