Haryana votes to decide winner in battle of freebies
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BJP, Congress push freebies in Haryana Assembly elections
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 5: Brisk polling is being reported for 90 Assembly seats in Haryana on Saturday. The bigwigs of the political parties cast their votes in the first few minutes of the polling.
Top guns of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress issued fresh appeals to the voters through social media platforms. The political outfits reiterated their poll commitments to the electorate.
Haryana’s political depth is seen in participation of the candidates in the elections. There are as many as 1031 candidates in the poll fray.
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Ahead of the poll date announcement for Haryana, the Congress projected a divided house. By the time curtains came down on campaigning, the Congress projected a united house.
‘Team Rahul Gandhi’ took lead role in closing of the ranks of sub-regional satraps of the Congress in Haryana. Former Rahul Gandhi acolyte, Ashok Tanwar, returned to the Congress fold on the last day of polling.
The BJP campaigns in Haryana lacked zeal of the party leaders. Political observers noted that the BJP was trying to put up a fight in Haryana while being aware of the change in the wind.
Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah led the BJP charge in Haryana. Last few days saw the BJP also fielding Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on campaign trails in Haryana.
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Haryana ranks much higher on several of the economic parameters. In export preparedness, the Niti Aayog ranked Haryana at fifth position. Farmers in Sonipat and other districts export tomato puree, sweetcorn, and other exotic vegetables in the UAE, London, and even Switzerland.
Yet, the poll campaign saw the BJP leaders facing the heat from the farmers. The BJP-led government earned the ire of the farmers for allegedly not paying compensations to failed crops in time.
The Congress has promised a law on MSP. Shah in one of his speeches had asked Gandhi to spell out the full form of MSP. Haryana already has Minimum Support Price regime for as many as 27 crops.
The BJP has promised ₹2300 each month for women in Haryana. The Congress has promised ₹2000 each month for women.
The BJP-led government in Maharashtra is transferring ₹1800 per month to women. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari at a public meeting in Maharashtra last week showed displeasure at competitive freebies in politics.
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“The people should not make investments by solely depending on government. They should know that the government is a ‘vishkanya (snake woman)’. The ₹1800 transfer to women each month leaves little for the state government to do,” Gadkari said.
Yet, the BJP is sanguine on freebies. Free electricity up to 300 units has now become a new normal. Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s political experiments in lessening burdens of electricity and water bills is now mainstreamed in the Indian politics.
The Congress is more sanguine than the BJP on politics of freebies. A caste census along with promise to raise the creamy layer to ₹10 lakh annual income is also the offering of the Congress.
Under Manohar Lal Khattar, former chief minister of Haryana, a slew of reforms was carried out in the Jat land. The electricity theft from the high of 50 per cent was brought down to the single digit.
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Slippages in the public distribution system were plugged with ‘Parivar Pehchan Patra (Family Identity Card)’. Hundreds of acres of land were freed from water-guzzling rice cultivation.
Land mapping was done to end court litigations on properties. Schools experimented with gadgets and new teaching methods. Several of the Khattar-era initiatives were adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the national level.
But Khattar per political observers led a highly bureaucratic government and he ignored the genuinely excluded sections from his reform push in Haryana.
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