The Fourth Lal of Haryana

Haryanvis are, along with Biharis, among the most stereotyped people in the country. But more so, there are famous for their notorious dynasties. It is the land of ‘’Lals” and their lals(children). Devi Lal, Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal are three most prominent former CMs who have left behind a legacy. BJP came to power in 2014 for the first time in the state riding on the coattails of Prime Minister Modi as well as due to anti-incumbency sentiment against a decade-long old government which had earned notoriety for being corrupt and focusing on only select pockets for development. A non-Jat became chief minister when BJP selected Manohar Lal Khattar — the fourth Lal — to head the government. He faced fierce opposition from outside the government and a muted resistance from within his party’s state unit. Barring a few in Sangh circles, he wasn’t well known even in the BJP let alone among the masses who hadn’t heard of him before the election. Everyone was betting against him and wishing for him to stumble, fail and fall. He did fail. Repeatedly. At least that’s how everyone saw it. Soon after assuming charge, he came under fire for how his government handled violent followers of Rampal who had defied court orders of arrest and was hiding in his ashram in Hisar. In early 2016, the Jat reservation movement which turned violent and claimed more than 30 lives, almost did him in. Chief Minister Khattar had barely recovered from that, when the mayhem unleashed by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda in Panchkula in early 2018 again seemed to prove his detractors right. They again bayed for his blood. But the party bosses in Delhi kept their faith in Khattar. Until last year, Khattar didn’t seem to be in control. The only thing that was going in his favour was his clean image. He had put an end to all kinds of corruption, which Haryana was infamous for. But it wasn’t enough. In fact, it was proving counter-productive especially among the party cadre. Given the lack of ideological or party loyalty, leaders and people flock to a party in the hope they will get personal favours when in power. But Chief Minister Khattar was in no mood to dole out government jobs to the party faithful or even entertain requests from ministers or his MLAs for transfers or contracts for their loyalists.

But soon Khattar’s fortunes took a turn for the better. In December 2018, BJP swept mayoral polls in five big municipalities of Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal, Panipat and Yamunanagar. It was truly an inflection point. Those who were sure that Chief Minister Khattar will be a one-term wonder, started realising the gravity of one past incident. It dawned on them how gravely the violence during Jat quota agitation has polarised the state even in areas where Jats had minimal presence. One month later, it won the Jind by-poll with a huge margin in Jat heartland. It fielded a non-Jat against Jat candidates ran by Chautalas and Congress. The demographics did the rest. But it wasn’t just that. Yes, polarisation was the biggest factor but there was more, something which analysts had also overlooked. Khattar’s war on corruption may have been resented by his own party men the most but it was starting to bear fruit on the ground. Just before the Jind election, the state government announced results for 18,000 Group-D jobs and Jind came third with over 1,600 applicants qualifying. In fact, the areas which bagged the most number of jobs were not BJP strongholds. The party had lost there in 2014. This proved to the people that the jobs were being given in a transparent manner. In his five-year tenure, Khattar government has given more sarkari jobs than what the state governments of Hooda and Chautalas did in the last 15 years before 2014. How could no one, from the shrewdest seasoned politicians to wily political operatives who stayed in power for years, crack this easy puzzle: that this could work wonders in a state crazy for sarkari jobs? It took a novice like Khattar to understand its importance. Because these vacancies are filled in a totally transparent manner, people from lower and poor sections of the society have benefitted the most. With bribe culture gone and merit the criterion, students have started focusing on studying rather than worrying about arranging money for cooling palms of corrupt middlemen or running behind politicians wasting time. Coaching classes are coming up everywhere. The amount of goodwill Khattar has earned among masses with just one move, especially among the youth, has only one parallel that I can think of: when Devi Lal had started monthly pension for the old-age folks in 1977. Khattar has also ended the culture of regionalism — favouring one’s hometown district or those areas which vote for you — over others. When people see public works being done in constituencies which didn’t vote for the BJP in 2014, it strikes them as something of an alien concept. Now, there is no waiting for someone from your area to become chief minister to see vikas. A close friend working these days with Government in Haryana who was especially biased against the ruling party, was recently praising it for the implementation of iconic Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme. I was smiling. And so is Manohar Lal.

While the ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’ culture is alive and kicking, Chief Minister Khattar has introduced a new governance model to Haryanvis: free of corruption and graft, which works for all parts of the state’s citizens based on their needs and not on their political affiliations. It is due to this culture that those politicians, especially dynasties, which thrived on regionalism or personal loyalties, have been dealt a body blow. Most importantly, he has rid the state government of image where it was seen to be run by the real estate tycoons. No wonder that Khattar is all set to return for a second term and this time with an even much bigger majority. The opposition is merely fighting for relevance, not to win. Of course, the BJP has been able to achieve it all by polarising the state along Jat-non-Jat lines, however strongly it may deny that fact. This has been the price that the state has paid for Chief Minister Khattar’s good governance. He has cleaned up a lot of mess, but Haryana has got infected with this deadly virus like never. One hopes that in the next five years, the state gets itself rid of this poison of caste tensions and rises to new highs. There are signs all over that this caste tension has reduced significantly in recent times with Jats voting openly for BJP in recently concluded General Elections, where the saffron party won all 10 Lok Sabha seats. Including the Jatland seats of Hisar, Rohtak and Sonipat.