M A I N   N E W S

Big turnout at Cong rally
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Sirsa, September 22
The Haryana Congress President, Mr Bhajan Lal, claimed here today that in the next state Assembly elections, his party would win 80 of the 90 seats. He was emboldened to make this claim by the impressive turnout at a rally which the party had dared to organise for the first time in the native district of Mr Om Prakash Chautala since the latter became the Chief Minister about three years ago.

Mr Bhajan Lal, HPCC President, along with senior Congress leaders (from L to R) Hanumantha Rao, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Natwar Singh and Ranjit Singh at a public rally in Sirsa on Sunday. — A Tribune photo

Several Congress leaders admitted that when it was decided to organise a rally in Sirsa, they apprehended it might not be a success because of the “atmosphere of terror” created in the district by Mr Chautala and his sons. “How, the success of the rally has proved that Mr Chautala may be ruling the state, but it is his younger brother Ranjit who rules the hearts of the people of Sirsa,” Mr Ran Singh Mann, who was the Chief Parliamentary Secretary in the Devi Lal government, said from the dais.

Mr Bhajan Lal, who was visibly moved by the popular support, claimed that in the next Lok Sabha elections, the Congress would make a clean sweep in the state.

Criticising the Chautala government for its failure to provide any drought relief to farmers, Mr Bhajan Lal said his government had given Rs 3,000 per acre of unsown land when the floods had ravaged the state. He demanded that those farmers who could not sow their land because of the drought should be paid a compensation of Rs 5,000 per acre.

Taking on the BJP, Mr Bhajan Lal said the party used to criticise the Congress for its alleged corrupt actions. But now the BJP government had turned out to be a “ghotale ki sarkar”, in an obvious reference to various scandals, which had rocked the Vajpayee government in the recent past.

The star attraction of today’s rally was the scion of the Scindia family, Jyotiraditya, who was on his first visit to Haryana. Mr Ranjit Singh was keen that the son of his godfather in the Congress, the late Madhavrao Scindia, should address the rally. Sources say the date of the rally was changed to suit the convenience of Jyotiraditya, for whom the visit was a journey in nostalgia.

The junior Scindia said his family had historical ties with Haryana because his ancestors had shed their blood on the land of Mahabharata in the Third Battle of Panipat. Coming down heavily on the Gujarat violence and the subsequent gaurav yatra, he said he was proud to be a Hindu because Hindus respected all religions. It was a tradition with Scindias to worship Lord Rama and Lord Krishna as well as to organise “urs” of Mansoorba, a Muslim saint.

Criticising the Chautala government, Mr Scindia said only 15 per cent farmers were under debt when Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister. But in the so-called farmer-friendly Chautala regime, 90 per cent farmers of the state were under debt. He apprehended that the Centre would dismantle the support price mechanism because so far it had not announced the minimum support price for paddy and other kharif crops.

Mr Natwar Singh, member of the Congress Working Committee, said the slogan of a stable government given by the Opposition parties was a hoax. This, he said was proved from the fact that while the Congress gave only five Prime Ministers in its 45-year rule, the Opposition gave 10 Prime Ministers in 10 years. He said Sardar Patel, a Congressman, might be Mr L.K. Advani’s role model, but Mr Advani was no hero to any Congressman.

He said if Mrs Sonia Gandhi wanted to be the Prime Minister of the country, she could have become one 11 years ago when the CWC had unanimously elected her as the party President. But she preferred to lead a Hindu widow’s life for seven years. It was only at the insistence of the Congressmen that she reluctantly joined politics. It was for the electorate, and not the RSS, to decide who should be the Prime Minister of the country.

The AICC Secretary in charge of the party affairs in Haryana, Mr Hanumantha Rao, said those who till the other day were reciting “Vajpayee chalisa” were now reading “Advani chalisa”, giving more than indication to Mr Vajpayee that he was now on his way out. He concluded his speech by raising the slogan of “Jai Hind, Jai Indira”, reminding the audience of the late D.K. Barua’s (in)famous slogan of the Emergency days: “India is Indira, Indira is India”.

A former Haryana Congress President, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, said Mr Chautala, who, along with his father Devi Lal, used to describe the BJP as a “looteron ki party”, was supporting its government at the Centre to remain in saddle in the state. He said the success of today’s rally was an expression of no-confidence by the people in the Chautala government.

Mr Ranjit Singh, younger son of Devi Lal and main organiser of the rally, said they had prepared the pitch on which the Congress would defeat the INLD.