More Lows Than Highs Mark One Year of Khattar’s Govt in Office

With many controversies, more lows than highs mark Khattar’s one year in office, writes Vipin Pubby.

The advertisement blitzkrieg launched by the BJP government in Haryana led by Manohar Lal Khattar on the eve of the completion of one year in office has an ironic tagline, ‘Ek Versh, Sarvatar Hersh’ (One year, happiness everywhere). It’s a moot question as to who all may be happy besides the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose agenda is being implemented faithfully by its former Pracharak.

Riding on the Modi wave, BJP had captured power for the first time on its own in Haryana a few months after it swept to power at the Centre. A political non-entity, who was elected as a legislator for the first time, emerged as the dark horse after the election results. Old guards of the party, like five-time MLA Anil Vij or former minister Ram Bilas Sharma, were ignored to pave the way for a close confidant of Modi, and everyone was asked to fall in line.

Some Questionable Moves

If Khattar was tasked to implement the Saffron ideology and was to be judged solely on that criteria, he has done very well for himself and the BJP government. He has ushered in several measures that he may have always strongly believed in. To be fair to the man, he has worn his ideology literally on his sleeves and has not wavered in his commitments to the ‘cause’.

Thus, for instance, he has successfully brought in the Cow Protection Bill which provides for a fine of Rs 30,000 to Rs one lakh and imprisonment of up to 10 years for anyone found slaughtering cows or selling beef. He has given a go ahead to Dinanath Batra, the Hindutva ‘expert’ to bring about ‘reforms’ in the textbooks and the education system. He has sanctioned Rs 50 crore to locate the mythical Saraswati river. He has appointed Swami Ramdev as the brand ambassador of the state and has made it a point to espouse yoga.

Some Pitfalls

Khattar, however, has not been content with just that. He has openly supported the diktats of controversial khap panchayats, objected to the modern day dress ‘culture’ and supported guidelines on how women should behave.

In another gaffe, as part of his interviews to the media on the eve of completion of one year in office, he went on to say that “if the Muslims have to stay in the country, they shall have to stop eating beef”. His comments attracted wide criticism for not only laying down condition for Muslims living in the country but also imputing that “they” had no fundamental right to stay in the country. His media advisors initially sought to deny the remark and said that his statement was distorted and taken out of context, but he and his advisors had to admit the remarks once the audio tapes were made public. Even then he didn’t say that he regretted his remarks and got away by saying that he regretted if he had hurt anyone’s feelings.

Though there have been stray incidents of communal and caste violence in the state throughout the year, the national media focused mainly on two such incidents which took place in the National Capital Region on the eve of the Khattar government’s one-year celebrations. Even though the government continues to maintain that they were non-communal incidents, their handling by the state government left much to be desired.

Long Way to Go

• It has been an unprecedented rise for ML Khattar who was chosen over several other party loyalists to be the chief minister of Haryana.
  
• Some administrative moves imbued with a saffron tinge such as beef ban, appointing Ramdev as the state’s brand ambassador.
  
• One year stint in office marred by stray incidents of communal and caste violence which saw the state government wanting on many fronts.
  
• Some good work done by the government includes launching welfare schemes and an impetus for infrastructure development.
  
• Khattar’s inexperience appears to be a stumbling block for the first-time chief minister.
  

A Greenhorn as Chief Minister

Khattar, who is disarmingly humble and frank about his lack of administrative experience, has his own share of problems from senior party colleagues and ministers who keep snapping at him. He has been maintaining a cool temperament with the smug knowledge of total backing from Prime Minister Modi and party chief Amit Shah. Although Shah had summoned him recently to give him a piece of his mind on his comments on beef and Muslims.

To give Khattar his due, he has maintained a good and clean image and has sought to bring in some reforms. Although his claim to have launched 52 new schemes in the last one year, which translates into one every week, is far-fetched, there have been some new schemes which have been received well. His stress on e-governance, the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme, bringing transparency into the process of recruitment, setting up women police stations in each district and expediting some pending infrastructure projects are appreciable.

However, his government’s first year will be remembered more for an attempt to impose the saffron agenda and for communal and caste issues. Given the fact that he is a greenhorn chief minister, one may overlook his lack of experience in the first year, but he will have to learn the ropes fast and deliver on the development agenda for which the residents of the state gave his party an overwhelming majority.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Chandigarh.)