Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, Prime Minister Narenda Modi has created history by opting for paradigm shift in Haryana by facilitating election of Manohar Lal Khattar as the first ever Punjabi Chief Minister of this state in which the political discourse has been jat-dominated ever since its creation in 1966 resulting from the re-organisation of Punjab. Non-jats had the privilege of occupying this office but not a Punjabi despite the fact that this community constitutes more than 20 per cent of its population, almost equal to the jats.
It is also for the first time that the Bharatiya Janata Party has come into majority at its own in this state riding on the Modi wave which got energised by the support mainly from the non-jat communities. The BJP, in a way, has experimented with new social engineering in this state where the party had just four MLAs in the previous Assembly. From 4 to 47 is perhaps its most spectacular achievement after the party swept the Lok Sabha polls.
The election of Khattar as the Chief Minister is highly significant in the sense that all these years, the Punjabis had been at the receiving end as they had been feeling discriminated against at every level, particularly in recruitment in government services. Their number in state services is just insignificant. The Sikh settlers for years faced the threat of getting uprooted from their lands, especially when Bansi Lal was the chief minister.
At one stage, this discrimination bordered even hatred as evident from the fact that Bansi Lal introduced Tamil as the second language ignoring Punjabi which had the rightful claim and had this status in this region under the regional formula before 1966. He used to justify his decision even years later on the logic that it was the anti-Punjabi sentiment that dominated this state which had been part of Punjab but this region had been neglected in the matter of development.
Majority of the Punjabis, both Sikhs as well as non-Sikhs, settled in this region, are the migrants from Pakistan. The region along the Grand Trunk Road is especially non-jat in character. The jats are mainly concentrated in Hissar, Sirsa, Rohtak, Jind and the adjoining areas. As the land owning class, it is this community that had been dictating political discourse like Punjab. In Punjab, the dalits constitute 32 per cent of the population but they have little say at the political level as they mainly are the have-nots. Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram was from Punjab but his experiment did not succeed in his own state despite such high number of dalits. However, in Haryana, Punjabis have been well to do but lacked their voice in political sphere.
The jat families which had been dominating the political scene in Haryana included Chaudhary Devi Lal whose offspring is the Chautala clan, Chaudhary Bansi Lal clan and the Hoodas. Bhajan Lal was a non-jat. Haryana had a Brahmin chief minister in Bhagwat Dyal Sharma but that was in the beginning. Of course, Bhajan Lal had emerged as the major force but he had the support of a section of the jats. He was a Bishnoi and also a migrant from Bahawalpur in Pakistan. His idiom was that of the jats as he belonged to Hisar district.
The Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections followed the bye-elections in which the Modi wave seemed to have ebbed and in this context, the BJP played a big stake gamble by going alone. None could assess that the party would come into majority at its own in Haryana and emerge as the single largest party in Maharashtra. The campaign, although thriving on strong anti-incumbency, was Modi centric. In Haryana, it is the experiment in new social engineering that paid dividends.
The big question under discussion in political circles is whether the BJP would replicate the same experiment in states like Punjab where its alliance with the Akali Dal is already under strain. The Akali Dal had joined hands with the INLD of Om Parkash Chautala with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal citing old family ties with Chautalas. For Modi, it is hard core politics that matters.
Khattar has been RSS activist and is first time MLA. In that context, his choice is very interesting. First time MLA and the first Punjabi Chief Minister of Haryana amount to creating history. But then Modi is already doing that.
