Row in Himachal Pradesh over who ate CM’s samosas

The Chief Minister’s Office too denied that a probe had been ordered, with chief media advisor Naresh Chauhan saying that it was CID’s “internal matter”.

The controversy surrounding the missing samosas meant for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu has become a heated topic of discussion.

The row snowballed over allegations that the CID had launched a probe to investigate the case of the missing samosas.

According to India Today report, officials rejected the allegations, saying that no official probe had been instituted and that it was an “internal matter” that was being blown out of proportion. Sanjeev Ranjan Ojha, the director general of Himachal Pradesh CID, said it was a simple matter of a bunch of officers gathering for tea and wondering where boxes of snacks ordered for the event were.

Ojha said that no “probe” had been launched and all that happened was an appeal being made to find out what had happened to the boxes.

“The Chief Minister was our chief guest for a function. When the function was over, officers were sitting and having tea and someone told that some stuff was brought and what happened to that, just find out. It was just this only, and it is purely an internal matter of the CID. It is sad and unfortunate that it has been blown out of proportion and politicised. It is unfortunate that people who have nothing to do with this are targeted,” Ojha said.

The Chief Minister’s Office too denied that a probe had been ordered, with chief media advisor Naresh Chauhan saying that it was CID’s “internal matter”.

“The government did not order any such investigation, and it has nothing to do with this matter. The CID is investigating the matter at its own level. After all, who was given the refreshments served to the Chief Minister?,” Chauhan said.

Chauhan also hit back at the BJP and said that they are unnecessarily blowing up the issue. “Because the BJP does not have any issues, hence false propaganda is being done against the Congress government through this issue,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, CM Sukhu clarified the investigation into the recent samosa-cake mix-up, which erupted after snacks meant for the CM were allegedly served to his security staff. The situation escalated when allegations surfaced that the CID had launched an investigation into the incident.

However, both the chief minister and the authorities have denied these allegations.

“There is no such thing… It (CID) got involved in the issue of misbehavior,” Himachal CM Sukhu told news agency ANI.

“This is completely an internal matter of the CID. It should not be politicised. The CM does not eat samosas… We have not given notice to anyone. We have just said to find out what happened. The government has nothing to do with this… We will find out how this information was leaked,” he said.

WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ALL ABOUT

On October 21, Chief Minister Sukhu attended an event at the CID headquarters in Shimla where the samosas, along with cakes meant for him, were mistakenly given to his staff.

As per report, the mix-up began when an Inspector General (IG) asked for refreshments, delegating the task to a sub-inspector (SI), who then passed it to an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and a head constable. The officers collected the sealed snack boxes and informed the SI, who was the only one aware that they were meant for the chief minister. However, further confusion led to the snacks being taken to the mechanical transport (MT) section, where they were mistakenly served to the security staff.

This incident did not go down well with the BJP as Jairam Thakur questioned why it was labeled an “anti-government” activity.
Earlier in the day, Jairam Thakur said, “Nowadays, the way the government takes decisions in Himachal Pradesh has become a topic of discussion in the whole country because decisions are taken without thinking. Now another topic that is being discussed is that the samosas did not reach where they should have reached, they got lost in the middle and the Chief Minister and the Himachal Pradesh government felt that this is a very serious matter and an investigation should be done on this”.

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