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‘He only promotes those leaders who will never show any resistance to him in future.’
Just weeks before the Lok Sabha elections Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a surprise decision for the state of Haryana.
He sacked his longtime friend Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister and replaced him with Kurukshetra member of Parliament and BJP state chief Nayab Singh Saini.
Only a day earlier, Prime Minister Modi spoke highly of Khattar and recalled the old days when he used to roam around on a motorcycle with Khattar during his days as general secretary of the BJP in Haryana.
The dismissal hence came as a surprise because Khattar was not only a close friend of PM Modi but was also handpicked by him as the Haryana CM 10 years ago.
So what prompted Modi to remove Khattar?
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Pushpendra Singh, president, Kisan Shakti Sangh, on why Modi did what he did.
Why you think Manohar Lal Khattar was sacked as chief minister of Haryana?
In the 10 years of his rule horrible atrocities were committed on farmers. During the farmers protest that happened in Delhi against the three farm laws, there were many places in Haryana which witnessed lathi charge and detention of farmers in jail.
The Khattar government never allowed farmers to attend meetings in their villages as they used to impose Section 144 of IPC to deter them.
The government also used to distribute pamphlets in villages stating that if farmers participated against the three farm laws their passports will be revoked.
In some cases they also arrested people under the National Security Act (NSA).
They used to barricade Haryana borders to not allow farmers to reach Delhi for the protest.
All these things the Khattar government did at the behest of the Modi government.
Even today, as we speak, farmers are being stopped from protesting and going to Delhi as they are being stopped on the Punjab-Haryana border, which is illegal.
All this led to Khattar losing his popularity among voters, therefore he was replaced.
What surprises many is that just a day earlier PM Modi spoke highly about Khattar and his old friendship with him when they used to ride together on a motorcycle. What went wrong in one day?
This is PM Modi’s style whenever he has to sacrifice some leader.
You also need to know that this is also a part of headline management as the government wants to suppress the electoral bond matter or divert attention from electoral bond issue.
Firing of missiles or replacing their own government with new faces is all scripted by the BJP leadership.
PM Modi wants to tell BJP leaders that no one can take him for granted as he has all the powers with him.
Do leaders like Khattar not feel bad about being sacked in such a manner?
PM Modi wants BJP leaders with no spine. He only promotes those leaders who will never show any resistance to him in future.
He has sidelined so many big leaders within the BJP like Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Biplab Deb or even B S Yediyurappa in Karnataka.
In Gujarat, he went to change the entire cabinet and sack Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
PM Modi’s style of functioning is such that he does not allow anyone to become comfortable in his seat.
Every BJP leader knows that his chair is not safe and dependent on Modi. Therefore they prefer to keep quiet rather than speak out or revolt against PM Modi.
PM Modi got 58 percent votes in the 2019 elections from Haryana. The BJP won 10 out of 10 parliamentary seats last time so what is the insecurity now?
It is true that he got 58 percent votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections but the same year when state elections were held, the BJP did not win comfortably.
They got 36.5 percent votes in the Haryana state assembly elections.
A drop of 22 percent votes within a year, is huge.
Out of 90 seats in Haryana assembly the BJP won only 40 seats.
The Congress party got 28 percent votes in that elections and 31 seats.
The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) got 10 seats and 15 percent votes.
The BJP then joined hands with the JJP and independent MLAs to form the government.
They did not have a comfortable majority on their own in the assembly.
Khattar ruled Haryana by suppressing dissent and made Haryana into a police state.
His government saw record unemployment in India as 38 percent of the people were unemployed.
There were also other issues like paper leaks during examination.
His government also fired on farmers during protests in which one farmer died.
They did not stop there but also attacked farmers with drones, tear gas, rubber bullets and lathi charged them.
This led to the sullying of Khattar’s image in Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh among farmers.
Plus the Congress and Aam Aadmi party have done seat adjustments in Haryana which is making the state a tough place for the BJP to win in a contest.
What about the JJP? Were they not asking for two parliamentary seats which led to the break in alliance with the BJP?
Yes, they became ambitious and asked for two parliamentary seats which the BJP refused to part with.
The BJP realised that the core voter of JJP is farmers and that is primarily the Jat community.
They know that Jats are unhappy with the BJP and JJP so they will not vote for this alliance in 2024.
So, the JJP has nothing to show as their vote bank to the BJP now.
Abhay Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal had 18 to 20 percent vote share in Haryana but his nephew Dushyant Chautala of the JJP walked away with 15 percent of that vote bank in the 2019 assembly elections. This reduced the vote share of INLD to 3 percent.
I feel this entire 18-20 percent of votes of the INLD and JJP will shift to the Congress party this time.
This time the Jat community and farmers have decided they cannot afford to split their votes as they will be beaten black and blue if the BJP comes to power again.
The BJP is also hoping that if the JJP is not in alliance with them they may divide the Jat votes to even 3 percent, and it will be good for them as the opposition votes will get divided.
Is the JJP such a bad name in Haryana?
Yes, the people of Haryana feel had the JJP not supported the BJP their government would not have been formed in the state.
They feel the JJP could have gone with the Congress party and formed the government but they did not do that and instead joined hands with the BJP.
It is like axe is of the BJP but the wooden handle that is holding the axe is JJP.
Today the JJP’s condition is such that they will not be able to win even one seat in the assembly elections.
The same is the case with INLD as no one wants to vote for a party which is not going to win against the BJP.
The new chief minister Nayab Singh Saini comes from the Other Backward Caste and it is said that the BJP is trying to consolidate other castes in Haryana to counter the Jat votes which is strongly behind the Congress party. Is it true?
The demography of Haryana is such that it has 21 percent of Schedule Caste votes.
There are around 27 to 30 percent Jats in the state.
There are then 25 to 30 percent OBCs.
We then have small percentages of other communities like Brahmins, etc.
However, it is the Jat community which is a strong community in Haryana which is consolidated and the politics of Haryana revolves around them.
If all the Jats go to one party then there is no way that party can lose.
And now when one looks back, people feel that the Congress government was doing good governance in their time. They were progressive and used to call every community and hear out their grievances. They were a moderate government.
The other factor is the Muslim votes of Haryana which constitutes around 5 to 6 percent. It is around the Mewat region, and they are against the BJP when it comes to voting.
Now, Jat plus Muslims plus Schedule Caste vote which is inclined towards the Congress will surly see BJP reducing its seats share.
In the coming Haryana assembly they will be reduce to 20 to 25 seats.
Do you mean they are targeting the Jat community, why else would the BJP’s Jat leader Rahul Kaswan and Haryana’s Brijendra Singh join the Congress?
The BJP is trying to consolidate anti-Jat votes. It is a divide and rule policy they are adopting.
They do that with Muslims at times, then they do it with Sikhs and other communities.
They used this formula of dividing Jats and used Dushyant Chautala in 2019. They used him and dumped him.