Hooda plays down meeting with Modi

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 19

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today played down his recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid speculation on his possible political moves.

Modi stopped in the central hall of Parliament to meet Hooda on the concluding day of the monsoon Session recently. He was on his way from the Rajya Sabha to his office in Parliament.

The interaction between the two leaders was brief but the surprise element was Modi veering to catch up with the Congress leader after spotting him in the central hall. They reportedly interacted in Gujarati.

Hooda said, “There was no political angle to the meeting. We know each other personally. We used to sit close to each other during official meetings of Chief Ministers in Delhi”.

The seats of Chief Ministers are arranged according to the alphabetical order of states. “G” stands for Gujarat and “H” stands for Haryana.

On interaction with Modi in Gujarati, he said, “I am conversant with the language. I was in Sainik School at Jamnagar (Gujarat) before migrating to Karnal for further schooling”.

However, speculation on the meeting and Hooda’s moves refuses to die, especially in the wake of the BJP’s campaign to expand its footprints across the country. The reason for it has a political context. The BJP does not have a strong Jat leader in its ranks, and many see Hooda could be its possible big catch.

Jats are scattered over nine states, albeit they are demographically influential in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi. Considering that BJP president Amti Shah lays much stress on micro management of votes, the party casting a net has a political logic.

Hooda has also a pedigreed political and “nationalist” lineage flowing from his father and grandfather’s contributions to the Independence movement. Many in the BJP appreciate Hooda for his government’s stand in the case of Samjhuata Express blast near Panipat. The state police had concluded that the crime was a handiwork of elements across the border. The Hooda government had recommended to the Central government for a higher probe as the crime had angles beyond the state’s frontiers.

When the NIA took over the case, Hindutva terror behind the crime got injected into the narrative.

The line taken by the Haryana Police during the Hooda government gels with the line of the investigation under the NDA.

Besides, the perception in the political circles is that the BJP has not been able to make a mark in Haryana even though it formed the government on its own for the first time in the last Assembly elections.

On the contrary, reports suggest that Hooda’s “Kisan Panchayat” aimed at the Central and state governments drew good crowds in Haryana, even in the areas dominated by non-Jats.

New political equation may shape up: Dahiya

Sonepat: Jai Tirath Dahiya, Congress MLA from the Rai Assembly constituency in the district, has said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the central hall of Parliament on Thursday has political meaning. Dahiya has said whenever two top political leaders meet, they discuss politics as there is nothing permanent in politics. "There is no doubt that such a high-level meeting can give birth to a new political equation and it should not only be treated as a formal meeting," he added. He said the BJP leadership had been trying to bring Jat leaders into the party's fold in the state as well as deal with the issues of Jats. Dahiya added Congress MLAs from Haryana had met Kamal Nath, in charge of party affairs in the state, and urged him to change HPCC president Ashok Tanwar. Kamal Nath had assured them of change in the party set up. Hooda had earlier met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in this regard but so far the state party leadership has not been changed, he said.oc

Tanwar unhappy with Rai MLA's remark 

Chandigarh:  Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar on Saturday took exception to the reported statement of Rai MLA Jai Tirath Dahiya about the political significance of Bhupinder Singh Hooda's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tanwar said Dahiya's statement was against the party's constitution and amounts to gross indiscipline on the part of  the Congress legislator. "I will take up the matter with the party top leadership," Tanwar said here. TNS

Capt Yadav seeks disciplinary action against Dahiya

Rewari: Senior Congress leader Capt Ajay Singh Yadav has demanded disciplinary action against Rai MLA Jai Tirth Dahiya for his remarks against state Congress president Ashok Tanwar in Sonepat on Friday. “The party top leadership should take disciplinary action against Dahiya for terming Tanwar as a ‘weak’ state president of the party as well as seeking his removal from the post. Such statements are unfortunate and may demoralise party workers. It necessitates action against the MLA to maintain discipline in the party,” said Yadav. — TNS