Mandi – Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur on Wednesday accused the Himachal Pradesh government of misusing state funds by issuing advertisements worth over ₹2 crore to the National Herald and its affiliated newspapers, calling it a blatant violation of rules meant to regulate public spending.
Addressing a press conference in Mandi, Thakur ridiculed Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, saying the Congress government is “looting public money to please the Gandhi family.” He alleged that while poor citizens in Himachal are struggling to afford healthcare and are forced to sell their jewellery for treatment, the government is splurging crores of rupees on publications linked to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
“The Chief Minister says the National Herald is their newspaper and they can give as much advertisement as they want. But this money belongs to the people of the state, not the Congress high command,” Thakur said.
He claimed that in the past two years, the Congress-led government issued over ₹2 crore in advertisements to National Herald and Navjeevan newspapers, bypassing the norms set by the Department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) and the DAVP guidelines. In some cases, he alleged, payments were processed twice in a single day.
According to Thakur, these ad payments are part of a larger pattern of political appeasement at the cost of the state’s financial health. “This is not just unethical but a violation of administrative conduct. The government is starving local media houses while showering public money on Congress-affiliated publications,” he said.
He also connected the issue to the ongoing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case, recalling that the matter dates back to 2012 when Subramanian Swamy filed a case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Patiala House Court during the UPA regime. The ED began its probe in 2021, but Congress has since launched protests against the investigation.
“Whenever national agencies start probing their scams, Congress plays the victim card. Ministers and even chief ministers are now protesting against ED. What are they afraid of?” Thakur questioned.
He said the Congress leadership, from Nehru to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, had turned a publication founded before independence into a tool for corruption. “The mentality of looting public money existed before independence and continues today in Congress,” Thakur said. The BJP will continue to expose such misuse of power and public money.
