Dhumal stooped low and acted meanly: Virbhadra Singh

Shimla: Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today lashed out at opposition BJP for disrupting the proceedings of the Assembly, and dubbed BJP leader PK Dhumal “mean”. “Dissent and policy differences are part of parliamentary democracy. But Dhumal stooped to the lowest ebb and acted meanly,” Virbhadra said during the response to debate on Motion of Thanks on Governor’s address. [caption id=“attachment_1377433” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Virbhadra Singh. AFP[/caption] Mentioning various cases in which he was given clean chit, the Chief Minister accused Dhumal of instituting cases against him and said if there was any gold medal for “meanness”, it should be given to Dhumal. Virbhadra said the Dhumals were facing the heat due to inquiry into the HPCA scam, in which lands worth over Rs 250 crore were found to be given to the association in violation of norms. The clearances to HPCA, which is headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, were given by the then cabinet presided by Dhumal, who is also Anurag’s father and the chief patron of HPCA, he said. “Every thing was done under pressure and HPCA, registered as a society, was converted into a Company and all the assets of the society were transferred to the Company,” he said. Referring to his remarks on bonded labourers, Singh said, “I did not make any such remarks before the press.” Later the house adopted the motion of thanks on Governor’s address presented on opening day on 3 February with voice vote. PTI