JAG MOHAN
THAKEN FROM CHANDIGARH

Just after the revolt of JJP MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, another MLA supporting the BJP government Mr.  Balraj Kundu also sounded a bugle within three months of formation of BJP-JJP alliance government.

Will the chain of resentment continue to increase its length or the Controller –Generals of the alliance succeed in curbing the voice of indignation? Before a final note, let us discuss the background.

Sometimes
bad luck of one turn to good luck for the other. BJPs not gaining the majority
win in October, 2019 Haryana Assembly elections bestowed a
sunny glowing day upon Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) in the murky political
scenario. After winning all the 10 Lok
Sabha seats in May,2019 on the air wings of Modi, the over
confident state BJP declared its target of 75 plus seats out of 90 in
Haryana Vidhan Sabha, but failed to read the ground report. When election
results were declared, the BJP which was flying high in the sky on the gas
filled balloons, dashed to the ground and got only 40 seats out of total 90. The
main opposition party congress got 31 seats,
the newly formed JJP caught 10 seats, whereas the independents and
others succeeded in getting 9. With  a clear motive of getting power by hook or
crook and keeping in mind the  popular
saying “Better give the wool than the whole sheep”,  the just ousted BJP caught the butterfly
JJP   hovering over the flower garden
to  suck the power pollen  juice and made it the partner in the power
game. BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar once again got King’s crown and JJP in lieu of
its King maker role got the Deputy CM post for its field supremo Dushyant
Chautala.

It has been
noticed in different elections, that in Haryana, the voters don’t take on top priority
the development through “Sabka Saath –Sabka Vikas”, rather they want “Mera
Saath –Mera Vikas”.  It is generally
quoted that had they liked the general or public development works; the former
Chief Minister late Chaudhary Bansi Lal never had lost the elections. It is
also noticed in the just held assembly elections, the former state finance
minister, Captain Abhimanyu lost the race despite his multilevel development
works in his Narnaund constituency.

Generally,
to get the elections and defections favourably the high side promises are made
and if one sees the least chances to win then sometimes the political leaders
bless everyone with a son. JJP did so and made 160 promises in its manifesto during elections, which require a
huge fund to fulfil these. Some of these are high side promises which even not
possible to implement due to the paucity of funds with the state and other
restrictions.  JJP knew this before- hand,
but it promised these just to bend the voters towards it. JJP had not even
thought of it getting the power share so soon. Now their own promises have put
BJP-JJP alliance government in a dilemma. Both partners have made nearly 400 promises, out of which 70 are
common and are being considered for their common minimum programme.

JJP’s some
major promises are– Increase in the monthly old age pension from the
existing  Rs 2,000 to 5,100, lowering down of eligibility
age  for the old age pension from present
60 years to  55 for women and 58 for
males, to reserve 75 per cent of jobs for the local youth
which constitute a sizeable chunk of nearly 1.83 crore voters of the state, to give a monthly assistance of
Rs 11,000 per month to unemployed youth while
student from rural areas to  be given
extra ten marks when they appear in competitive examinations in the state, for
the farmers, a bonus of 10 per cent
or Rs 100 to 
be given over MSP, minimum wages to be fixed at Rs 16,000  and to  waive loans taken by farmers from the
cooperative banks.

If we have a
sight on loan to farmers, 823811
farmers are yet to repay the loans amounting Rs. 3748 crore  as on  31 December,
2019 to the cooperative banks in the state even after the
recovery.

Haryana
Cooperation Minister, Dr. Banwari Lal, while 
announcing the last date of ‘One Time Settlement Scheme’ till January 31, 2020 for the loanee members and farmers,
who have an account with cooperative banks to facilitate the members and
farmers to take advantage of the scheme, told 
that the total amount of short term loan of Harco Bank is about Rs 3091 crore and there are about 6,99,804 beneficiaries, out of which Rs 1136.36 crore has been recovered from 2,51,481 beneficiaries till 31 December
2019. 
He also added
that the total loan amount of District Central Co-operative Banks is about Rs 608 crores and there are about 31749 beneficiaries, out of which an amount of Rs 150.74 crores has been recovered from about 6925 beneficiaries till 31 December 2019. He
further informed that the Land Mortgage Bank has a total of 92258 indebted beneficiaries and a total loan amount of Rs.1577.75 crores, out of which an amount of Rs.242.18 crores have been recovered from 9151 indebted beneficiaries till January 2, 2020.

Haryana
Power and Jails minister Ranjit Singh divulged while addressing media persons
during the first Bijli panchayat in Hisar on Sunday Jan 05,2020, “According to the data of rural domestic consumers, the
total pending amount is Rs.2,900
crore, of which Rs. 95 crore is of farmers using tube wells.
We are meeting the panchayat members of villages that are on the defaulters’
list and will ask them how they will pay the amount.”

It is
pertinent to mention here that the farmers had stopped the repayment of loans
and electricity bills believing on the waivement promises of different
political leaders. During this assembly election also, JJP and Congress both
made the farmers’ loans and electricity bills as election issues.

During assembly election campaign, Congress leader and former chief minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda had alleged that due to wrong policies of BJP government the Haryana had become debt ridden state. 

In a tweet on October 15,2019, Hooda alleged, “BJP government had emptied the state treasurer and burdened the

State with a
loan of Rs. 164076 
Crore during BJP’s five year tenure from 2014 to 2019, whereas  during  
the 48 years regime from 1966 to 2014 the
state availed of  a debt of  Rs.76263
Crore.”

To start
with, the alliance government declared implementation of its first promise of
enhancement of old age and widow pension from present Rs. 2000 per month to Rs. 2250 by
giving an increase of just Rs. 250/ per
month.

Now Chief
minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday, January 03,2020, announced increase in all monthly social security pensions,
including the old age pension, from Rs. 2,000 to
Rs.2,250.

Since 2015, the state government has extended an increase of Rs 200 in these pensions every year. The old age pension
which was Rs.1,000 in 2014 was increased in the last five years at the rate of Rs.200 every year, giving a last slab of Rs. 2000 per month.

However,
BJP’s power partner, JJP had promised an ambitious increase in the monthly old
age pension from the existing Rs 2,000 to
Rs.5,100, whereas the BJP had promised to increase the old age
pension to Rs.3,000 per month during the assembly
election campaign.

Reacting
over the pension enhancement, the former Chief Minister, Bhupinder Hooda said
on January 6,2020 at Rohtak, “It is no achievement by
the government as it has hiked only Rs.50
additionally.”

If we
consider this increase of Rs. 250 per
month as a routine yearly increase  on
the lines of previous yearly increases of Rs. 200 per year by BJP led government , then question arises, what
the JJP did ? Did JJP succeed in getting an increase of Rs. 50 only  as its
share  ? What about its promise of Rs. 5100 per month ?

Commenting
on the increase, Congress leader and three times Member Lok sabha, Mr.
Deepender Singh Hooda reacted on January,03,2020,
“The BJP-JJP alliance government has given a Lollypop to the public by just
enhancing old age pension from Rs. 2000 to Rs.
2250 against a promise of Rs. 5100. The public will never forgive the alliance government for
this betrayal. Is this the common minimum programme?”

Congress
leader Randeep Singh Surjewala took a dig at the BJP-JJP coalition government
in Haryana and said their common minimum programme had become “common mess
of parties”.

“Because neither any farm debt was
waived nor old age pension of Rs 5,100 was
given. Yes, the JJP did get 11
departments and the BJP managed to retain power. But what 2.50 crore population of Haryana got,” Surjewala asked.

Indian
National lok Dal supreme operator and former leader of opposition in Haryana
Assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala tells the pension increase as ‘A drop in ocean’
and questions JJP leaders, without naming them, “Where are the persons, who
were claiming to extend Rs. 5100 per
month pension to the old age citizens ?”

But still
the JJP appreciating the step. Speaking to the media in Bhiwani on January 4, 2020, JJP supremo and Deputy CM Dushyant
Chautala said, “We have increased the pension by Rs.250 just in a short span of 67 days, this will lay a burden of Rs. 1000 crore on the state exchequer.”

He claimed
that during these 67 days the BJP-JJP alliance government
has fulfilled four promises of JJP manifesto and three from BJP manifesto under
common minimum programme. 

After the
first meeting of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) Committee held in
Chandigarh on November 28,2019, CMP Committee chairperson and
senior cabinet minister Anil Vij said that many promises of both the parties
–BJP and JJP are similar and implementation of many has already been started.

Will the
Alliance govt run for the full five-year term?

While at
Rohtak on January 6,2020, INLD supremo and former Chief Minister of Haryana, Om
Prakash Chautala predicting the mid-term polls for the state said that BJP-JJP
alliance government will fall on its own very soon. Exhorting the workers,
Chautala said, “I urge you all to get ready for mid-term polls for Haryana
assembly, because many MLAs of the ruling alliance are not happy and they will
topple the government any time.”

Supporting
the INLD supremo’s prediction, Leader of Opposition in Haryana assembly and
former CM Bhupinder Hooda said on the same day, “If Chautala had stated so, he
must have made this observation after having a proper analysis of the situation.
No possibility can be ruled out in politics and everything is possible.”

Countering
the mid-term poll  predictions  by opposition party leaders, on the occasion
of inauguration of a Cancer Unit in  a
private hospital on January 07,2020 at Panipat, 
Deputy CM  and JJP leader Dushyant
Chautala  said, “BJP-JJP alliance
government  is running as a stable
government  and it will go on till its
full five year tenure.”

Hitting on
the congress party on the issue of old age pension increase, Dushyant said,

“The Old age
pension got an increase of just Rs. 700 in 10 years rule of congress in the state, whereas the BJP-JJP
alliance government has given an enhancement of Rs. 250 in just 60 days .”

Three days before,
Dushyant had also claimed that during these two months the BJP-JJP alliance
government had fulfilled four promises of JJP manifesto and three from BJP
manifesto under common minimum programme. 

The political analysts calculate that it is the hard fact that the BJP will never compromise to fulfil the manifesto points promised by JJP. BJP think tank clearly knows that if JJP succeeds in getting its agenda implemented, it will be an action of digging its own grave for BJP. So, BJP will play its well tested ‘Use-Fuse and Refuse’ theory and downsize the alliance partner JJP with the slow poisoning process. It will neither let it to die nor will give it much strength to raise its graph. The present live example of victim of ‘Use-Fuse and Refuse’ theory is Mr. Lal Krishan Advani. A slight enhancement in old age pension, against a high pitch promise of Rs. 5100 of JJP, is an indication of downsizing the JJP. Now it is up to the JJP supremo Dushyant Chautala, whether he prefers to enjoy the sweet fruits of power for the limited period on the clemency of BJP or to stand up like his great grandfather late Chaudhary Devi Lal and reign over the state politics for a longer half century.

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