BJP legislator orders samosas for Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhu

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Taking a dig at the Congress government over conducting an inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the sequence of events that led to samosas meant for the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) being served to his security staff, Ashish Sharma, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Hamirpur, placed an online order of 11 samosas for Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, reported news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the saffron party, held a samosa-distribution programme in state capital Shimla. BJYM members set up stalls in the city's Lower Bazar area and distributed samosas among people for free. They also fed samosas to a poster of CM Sukhu.

However, the Congress maintained that the government had not ordered any such inquiry and it could be CID's internal matter. A top CID officer also said that no formal inquiry was ordered into the incident.

In a post in Hindi on Facebook, Sharma said: "The state is already grappling with problems such as unemployment, financial crisis, delay in employees' pension and arrears of DA (dearness allowance), and at such a time, ordering a CID inquiry on samosas brought for CM Sukhu is very disappointing."

According to PTI, Sharma added that when the people of the state are fighting for their rights, the government should focus on real issues and not on such small matters.

"Protesting against this, I have sent 11 samosas to the CM, so that I can remind him that it is more important to solve the real problems of the people," the Hamirpur Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) added.

On October 21, CM Sukhu went to attend a programme at the CID headquarters in Shimla, where samosas and cakes brought for him were served to his staff instead.

Subsequently, CID officers ordered an inquiry into the episode. A noting by a senior officer on the inquiry report said the act was "anti-government and anti-CID".

Another BJP MLA, Sudhir Sharma, who represents Dharamshala, said the Congress government has made Himachal Pradesh a laughing stock in the country.

Both the MLAs are known critics of Sukhu. They were among the nine legislators, including Congress rebels and Independents, who had voted against the Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls held earlier in the year. They later joined the BJP and won the bypolls, reported PTI.

'Congress govt has failed in all fronts'

Meanwhile, state BJP vice-president and Kangra Member of Parliament (MP) Rajiv Bharadwaj questioned what was inside the box, along with the samosas, that prompted the government to order an inquiry.

On Saturday, the BJYM members raised slogans against the government for ignoring serious issues and probing petty matters.

State BJYM President Tilak Raj said people are unhappy with the government, educated and unemployed youngsters are struggling to get jobs, but the CID is probing non-serving of samosas.

He claimed that the law-and-order situation has deteriorated in the state, and drug abuse is on the rise among youngsters, including school-going children. Of the 1,170 youngsters in the age group of 15-30 years admitted at rehabilitation centres, 35 per cent are "chitta" addicts, but the government is not bothered, claimed Raj.

State BJP media in-charge Karan Nanda said the government has failed on all fronts. "Himachal Pradesh, which is known as "dev bhoomi", is in news these days for all the wrong reasons, such as toilet tax, freight tax and and an inquiry into samosas," said Nanda.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders accused the BJP of raising the controversy to harass the CM politically.

Internal matter of CID, says Congress

A Congress spokesperson said the BJP is bent upon harming the cause of the state government.

Naresh Chauhan, who is the media advisor to CM, said the government did not order any such inquiry and it could be an internal matter of the CID, a stance maintained by the agency as well.

On Friday, Sukhu said the probe was into the "misbehaviour" of officials but the media presented it as a probe into the missing samosas and claimed that the BJP has been running a smear campaign against the Congress government since his party secured a majority in the Assembly election in Himachal Pradesh.

The same day, CID Director General Ranjhan Ojha, while speaking about the matter in Shimla, said, "The CM was the chief guest at the launch of a data centre for the cyber-crime wing. After the event, the officials were having tea in the office when someone asked where were the eatables brought for the function and we said 'Pata karo kya hua (find out what happened)'."

"Neither have we issued any notice nor called for any explanation. The matter should not be politicised. We simply asked for a clarification as to what happened and a written report was submitted. We have no intention of taking action against anyone."

(With PTI inputs)