CM promoting kin : Jindal
by Yoginder Gupta and Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 22 — Industrialist-turned-politician and one of the founding pillars of the HVP, Mr O.P. Jindal, who resigned from the party yesterday, has accused the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, of being a casteist "who promotes nobody other than his own family members".

Mr Jindal's decision to quit the HVP has not come as a surprise to watchers of Haryana's political scene. For the past few months the former M.P. from Kurukshetra, who lost the Hisar parliamentary seat early this year, had been making statements critical of the Bansi Lal Government. However, so far he had avoided making personal allegations against the Chief Minister, though he had not been keeping his displeasure over the failures of the government a secret.

Announcing his resignation from the primary membership of the HVP with "deep anguish, disappointment and regret", Mr Jindal described Mr Bansi Lal as "a disappointing Chief Minister whose regime is full of corruption" and whose governance had been completely rejected by the people. I today regret that I was in the forefront of bringing him to power."

Mr Jindal said he and Mr Bansi Lal had campaigned together all over the state and promised that they would work for the uplift of all sections of society without any discrimination and work for the progress of the state and improve the law and order situation. The party had also promised round-the-clock power supply and to drain out rain water in less than three days.

Unfortunately during the two-and-a-half year regime of the HVP, no development had taken place and Mr Bansi Lal had proved himself to be the most inefficient Chief Minister.

Mr Jindal said he would have tolerated Mr Bansi Lal's "misrule" further had he not shocked him (Mr Jindal) by his actions in discriminating against members of the minorities and other communities.

"What shocked me the most was that this gentleman completely stopped even the meagre aid to the Maharaja Agarsain Medical College and Hospital at Agroha. While the previous governments had given an aid of about Rs 5 crore in a total project cost of Rs 30 crore, Mr Bansi Lal decided to stop the aid to this institution after coming to power. He violated the agreement of giving a matching grant of 50 per cent for the construction and 99 per cent of the recurring expenses.

Accusing the Chief Minister of being "double-faced", Mr Jindal, who is the chairman of the Maharaja Agarsain Medical College Society, said initially Mr Bansi Lal expressed his inability to fund the college because of resource crunch in the state due to prohibition. But even almost a year after prohibition was lifted, Mr Bansi Lal did not sanction even one rupee for the only medical institution in the world set up in the memory of Maharaja Agarsain.

Mr Jindal said the Chief Minister kept on promising him that the aid would be restored but he did not honour his commitment till date. "He is bent upon killing the institution."

He said he would unfold his future strategy after consulting members of his community, minorities and other sections of society, including "my supporters and well wishers".

Mr Jindal's resignation is the second major setback for the HVP in recent months. Earlier the PWD Minister, Dr Dharamvir Yadav, had revolted against the Chief Minister and levelled serious personal charges against Mr Bansi Lal. However, the party was able to contain damage after Dr Yadav's resignation from the Ministry. Its managers are confident that there would not be any exodus of senior leaders from the party following Mr Jindal's resignation, though they do not rule out the possibility of a few workers and district-level leaders joining hands with the former M.P., particularly in Hisar district, where he hails from.

Though no senior minister reacted to the allegations levelled by Mr Jindal, the HVP general secretary, Mr Rajeev Jain, in a statement described the allegations as "a bundle of lies".

Reacting sharply, Mr Jain alleged that as an M.P. Mr Jindal never raised any issue concerning public interest. Before maligning the Chief Minister, Mr Jindal should have seen his track record of how he misled the people of Kurukshetra where he had promised to install several factories to remove unemployment. "No factory of Mr Jindal can be seen in Kurukshetra from where he shifted to Hisar."

Denying that Mr Bansi Lal had stopped the grant to the Agroha College, Mr Jain said the grant was stopped by the Bhajan Lal Government. Mr Bansi Lal had never promised that the grant would be restored after prohibition was lifted. Describing Mr Jindal's allegation that Mr Bansi Lal discriminated against the minorities and other communities as vague, Mr Jain said Mr Jindal had not played any major role in bringing the HVP to power. He also stressed that Mr Bansi Lal had fulfilled almost all his electoral promises.

Meanwhile, Mr Mange Ram Sharma, president of the All-India Brahmin Mahasabha, has described Mr Jindal's resignation from the HVP as "the beginning of the end of Mr Bansi Lal".

With Mr Jindal playing his cards close to his chest, there is lot of speculation about his future course of action. Though sources close to him claim that Mr Jindal has received invitations from "almost all political parties" after his resignation from the HVP, he is expected to wait and watch for the turn of events in national politics after the results of the Assembly elections in the four states before announcing his future course of action.

Mr Jindal is believed to have been counselled by his advisers that he should first float a non-political front in an attempt to consolidate non-Jat communities in Haryana. The front can be later on converted into a political organisation.

However, the possibility of his straightway joining a political party is not ruled out in case there is any upheaval at the Centre after the Assembly poll results.

Informed sources say Mr Jindal's advisers include Mr Mange Ram Sharma, Mr Arvind Sharma, former MP from Sonepat who recently resigned as head of the Shiv Sena unit, and a scion of a newspaper publishing family interested in Haryana affairs.

Mr Jindal is believed to have contacted his former colleagues in the HVP today on the phone from Delhi. Their response is believed to be lukewarm.

The former MP is likely to visit Chandigarh early next week before announcing his future course of action, which, sources close to him say, he may do it in the City Beautiful itself.