War of words between Virbhadra, Dhumal over removal of plaques

SHIMLA: The Day 4 of the Himachal Pradesh assembly on Friday witnessed awkward moments when chief minister Virbhadra Singh was accused of removing the plaques of foundation stones that had the name of former chief minister and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal.

The duo locked their horns over the issue during the question hour.

Where on one hand Virbhadra blamed the BJP regime for removing plaques on buildings and bridges inaugurated during tenure of state’s founder and former chief minister Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar and his successor Thakur Ram Lal, on the other hand Dhumal said Singh was deliberately ordering removal of the plaques that had the former CM’s name.

The chief minister said during his previous tenure he inaugurated Bamson Lagawati water supply scheme in Dhumal’s former assembly segment Bamson. “Inaugural plaque that was put up near the bus stand at Awadevi has now been removed and shifted to water tank,” he said, adding in many places the tablet had been broken. “I have now ordered to put back the plaques that were either removed or had been broken,” Virbhadra said.

On the other hand, citing an example, Dhumal said he had inaugurated the building of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank in Dharamsala town during his previous stint as the chief minister.

“But when he (Virbhadra Singh) came to power (in December 2012), he ordered removal of the plaque carrying my name at Kangra Central Cooperative Bank. One day he went there on the pretext of relieving himself, just to know whether the plaque was removed,” Dhumal said.

Virbhadra then asked: “How do you know that I urinated there or not?”

At this, Dhumal replied: “Your people inform us.”

Agitated over Dhumal’s remarks, an angry Virbhadra Singh said: “This is height of vulgarity and nonsense. This clearly reflected bad thoughts in your mind.”