Congress' no-trust motion falls, Haryana CM Saini quotes Tagore to explain vision

The Congress’ no-confidence motion against the Saini government fell on Friday in the Legislative Assembly through a voice vote.  The Congress walked out of the House, so it fell by a unanimous vote.

Taking on the Opposition, CM Nayab Singh Saini said, “The Opposition’s allegations against us arose from their disappointment, desperation, and political grudges.” He said the motion was drafted in haste.

Responding to the Congress' allegations that due to the government’s tunnel vision, the state was hurtling towards an abyss, Saini started counting road infrastructure projects executed by the Modi government across the nation over the past 11 years. He said, “They have mentioned that we have a tunnel vision. I want to tell them, our vision is like Arjun’s eye on the target. Our vision is to realise Viksit Bharat by 2047. Our vision is ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas; Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas.”

Quoting Rabindranath Tagore, he said in his imagination, ‘Viksit Haryana’ was “where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high, where knowledge is free…”

On the ‘vote chori’ allegations, Saini said in the booth Rahul Gandhi talked about, the Congress had won both in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. It was Varun Mullana who won from the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, and his wife Pooja won in the Assembly polls from the Mullana seat, he said.

On Jhajjar Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal’s allegations of rising crime, the CM said Haryana had no space for criminals. “Either they should leave crime or leave Haryana...Seven criminals have been deported from abroad, including the US, Tajikistan, and Thailand, since I joined. In Congress’ time, FIRs were not even registered. Due to our policing, we have achieved success in controlling cybercrime, drugs, and organised crime.”

He added, “Murders have fallen by 12.75%; robbery by 49.71%.... On the other hand, from 2004 to 2014, there was an increase of 50% in murders, 230% in robbery, 178% in riots, and 258% in loot.”

On Y Puran Kumar’s suicide, he said the Chandigarh Police were investigating it.

He informed that from November 5 to November 27, under Operation Trackdown, 7,587 criminals were arrested and 322 illegal weapons were recovered. “From December 1 onwards, 2,200 criminals were arrested in Operation Hotspot Domination.”

Quoting the RBI report, he said the unemployment rate in Haryana is 3.8%, while it is 5% in Himachal and 5.4% in Punjab. “The report says that Haryana has done a commendable job in reducing rural unemployment. Even urban unemployment is lower than in neighbouring states.”

On jobs, he said the Congress gave mere 86,000 jobs whereas the BJP regime had given close to 2 lakh.

Rohtak MLA BB Batra accused him of discussing irrelevant matters. On the issue of inequality, when he began quoting national figures, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked the CM to take the matter seriously and respond to the no-confidence motion. He objected to his stating national figures. “What else is ‘vote chori’? You made ration cards, took votes, and then cut 13 lakh cards,” said Hooda.

The Congress then walked out of the House.

Earlier, the Beri Congress MLA, Dr Raghuvir Singh Kadian, presented the no-confidence motion. He said, “People have no confidence in the government due to its anti-people policies. Corruption and fear are rampant in the state. Eighty gangs are operating. For the past 15 years, none of the gang leaders has been arrested. They are operating from outside. They extort money from private school and hospital owners, as well as those in the finance sector.”

He demanded an inquiry from a sitting High Court judge into IPS officer Y Puran Kumar’s suicide.

“Unemployment is rampant, and youth are migrating abroad illegally. They are deported back in shackles. No cases are registered under the Travel Registration Act. The government is busy with event management.”

He also raised the issue of dilapidated sports infrastructure that led to the death of two basketball players.

Congress MLA Ashok Arora reminded that Saini had stated before the declaration of results that all arrangements had been made. “What arrangements did you make? A Brazilian model was on the voters’ list at several places,” he said, highlighting the failure of the government in controlling the Jat reservation stir in 2016, which led to the deaths of 32 people.

He also attacked the government for arousing caste sentiments around the suicides of Y Puran Kumar and ASI Sandeep.

INLD MLAs Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala did not support the motion and attacked Hooda for being hand in glove with the BJP.