Heart of Haryana: Haryana politics — story of aaya rams, kali bherh and Jaichands

When Haryana BJP leader and Energy minister Ranjit Singh blamed “Jaichands” for his defeat in the recent Hisar Lok Sabha polls and vowed to settle scores with them, it reflected Haryana’s peculiar political mannerism.

In this state, the earthy language of village folk often mingles with both history and fiction to result in unusual phrases that stand the test of time.

Like the term ‘aaya ram gaya ram,’ which was coined as long back as 1967, when Congress MLA Gaya Lal shifted loyalties four times within 24 hours, ultimately leading to the fall of the then Rao Birender Singh government.

Then in 1990, soon after the Haryana political patriarch, Devi Lal, had been elevated to the post of deputy Prime Minister in VP Singh’s government, his elder son and INLD supremo, Om Prakash Chautala, targeted younger brother Ranjit Singh. Chautala had just become chief minister of Haryana but that didn’t matter. There were some ‘kali bherh’, Chautala said, that were trying to destabilise his government.

Soon after, Ranjit Singh, along with three other ministers — Raghubir Kadian, Ran Singh Maan and Virender Singh – resigned, alleging rigging in the infamous byelection in Meham, only the year before in 1989, which had been marred by violence. In Haryana, that poll is still known as ‘Meham Kand,’ or, “Meham Scandal.’

Fast forward to the 2004 debacle in the Lok Sabha polls when the INLD lost all ten seats in the state. Once again, Chautala said that some ‘kali bherh’ in the party were responsible for the defeat.

But the allegations of betrayal seems to have gone a bit far this Lok Sabha poll, with the usage of the term, “Jaichand” by Ranjit Singh to target party rivals in the BJP. He was invoking the ancient curse in which one king brings down another by allying with an enemy.

Clearly, Ranjit Singh was hurt by his defeat in Hisar by the old Congress war-horse Jai Prakash, who registered his fourth win.

“Main Chaudhary Devi Lal ka ladka hun. Dosti bhi nibhana jaanta hu aur dushmani bhi nimbhana jaanta hu. (I am the son of Chaudhary Devi Lal and will never forget those who stood by me or those who worked against me). I will settle scores in the next assembly election which is just four months away. These Jaichands will be taught a tough lesson”, he said.

But Randhir Panihar, confidant and aide to BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, retorted that had they not backed him, Ranjit Singh would have trailed by 50,00 votes from Adampur as well as Nalwa assembly segments. Another BJP leader pointed out that there had been a negative swing of 4.16% in Adampur, 6.47% in Nalwa and 7.64% in Narnaund, which is less than the overall swing of 7.84% in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency – thus, they could not be blamed.

The dramatic switch of loyalties cut across all political parties in Haryana even before the elections could take place. The sitting BJP from Hisar, Brijendra Singh, joined the Congress, while the former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, along with his mother Savitri Jindal, joined the BJP. While former Congress Haryana president Ashok Tanwar, after a brief sojourn in AAP, travelled to the BJP to take on another former Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja in Sirsa.

Besides, there was almost an en masse desertion of leaders and workers from the JJP, a post poll ally in the BJP government.

Normally a disciplined unit, Haryana BJP is clearly experiencing the harsh reality of defeat of five seats to the Congress – it had won all 10 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. This time around the following candidates have suffered a jolt — Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Arvind Sharma from Rohtak, Mohan Lal Badoli from Sonepat, Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram and Ranjit Singh himself, have all had to bite the dust.

Even former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, now appointed the Housing & Urban Affairs minister in the Modi government, who won from Karnal, was said to have been a victim, with six BJP leaders being served notices for anti-party activities.

Prof ML Goyal, retired professor of Political Science from Government College, Hisar, told The Tribune that the BJP was always considered a disciplined unit in Haryana. “But anushashan (discipline) has caved in under aspirations for shashan (power). With new joinings and allocation of tickets to outsiders, there was apparent heartburn among party leaders. BJP is known as a party of cadre, disciple and ideology. But it seems to have succumbed to power games in Haryana. And thus the Congressisation of the BJP has come to be in Haryana”, he said.

Then there was the drama in the Congress with Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhary alleging that she was being sidelined by party candidate Rao Dan Singh, who fought from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency – he lost to BJP’s Dharambir. Singh also blamed the Tosham leader (obviously Kiran Chaudhury) for working against him in the election which, he claimed, led to his defeat.

AAP leader Anurag Dhanda was not to be left far behind. He accused Congress leaders in Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat – from where AAP candidate Sushil Gupta, fighting in alliance with the Congress, lost to BJP candidate Naveen Jindal – of sabotaging the election. However, Gupta instantly distanced himself from Dhanda’s statement.