Chautala’s chequered journey: Five-time CM to Tihar’s oldest inmate

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

From being a five-time Chief Minister to almost a decade in Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail on corruption charges to passing the Class XII exam at the age of 82, Om Prakash Chautala’s eventful career has been marked by significant achievements, controversies and legal complications.

Chautala, the INLD supremo, who shaped Haryana’s politics, especially Jat politics for the past over five decades, died of a cardiac arrest at Gurugram today, days before his 90th birthday on January 1.

Chautala, who has the dubious distinction of being sentenced to prison in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam and a disproportionate assets case, became the Chief Minister for the first time when his father Devi Lal became Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Dal government in 1989.

Chautala became state Chief Minister for the first time on December 2, 1989 and continued on this post till May 22, 1990. Later, he occupied this post from July 1, 1990 to July 17, 1990; then from March 22, 1991 to April 6, 1991; from July 24, 1999 to March 2, 2000; and finally, from March 2, 2000 to March 5, 2005.

The leadership skills of the INLD patriarch went a long way in strengthening the dominant Jat community’s influence in Haryana politics.

Born in January 1, 1935 to Devi Lal and Harki Devi, Chautala despite not being well-educated, remained a name to reckon with in Haryana politics on the sheer strength of his sharp political acumen.

At the age of 82 years, while serving sentence at the Tihar Jail, Chautala passed his Class XII exams in “first division” after his Class X. Chautala’s clearing of his Class X exam was so “socially inspiring” that a film ‘Dasvi’ was made with Abhishek Bachchan in the lead, a party statement claimed.

After his elevation as the CM, the Meham Assembly seat hit the national headlines after large-scale violence during a bypoll. A rebel Lok Dal leader and seven others were killed in what became infamous as the “Meham mayhem”. Later, the poll on the seat had to be postponed thrice with Opposition alleging large-scale irregularities in the polling process.

Chautala hobnobbed with the NDA at the Centre for several years but ties broke before the 2005 Haryana Assembly poll. The INLD never again came to power in the state though it remained the main Opposition for several years.

A major setback to Chautala and the INLD came in 2013 when he, along with his son Ajay Chautala, was sentenced to 10-year jail in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam involving illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000.

While Chautala was on parole, he was released from Delhi’s Tihar Jail in July 2021. He was sent back to Tihar Jail in May 2022 after he was sentenced to four-year jail in a disproportionate assets case, becoming the oldest inmate at 87.

The Delhi High Court later suspended the four-year sentence to Chautala. His two younger brothers Pratap and Ranjit Chautala followed him into politics.