How Jats ruined Congress’ party in Haryana
ABOUT a month ago, there was a buzz in Punjab and Haryana High Court circles about the consolidation of non-Jat communities in Haryana, against the growing Jat fortification in the Congress. It was the first indication that, perhaps, things were not going according to popular perception. Litigants from districts like Rohtak, Gurgaon, and Faridabad shared their fear and resentment over Jat assertion in the run up to the polls. “People told us that though they had initially decided to vote out the BJP this time, the manner in which aggressive Jats in their neighbourhood had begun to assert their might even before the polls, was making them do a re-think,” a lawyer said.
In the din of the election campaign where every analyst and observer felt otherwise, such pieces of information may well have been dismissed as mere straws in the wind. As it turned out, the one party — the Congress — which should have paid attention to the changing pattern of electoral winds was too busy giving hope and muscle to its Jat vote-bank.
The Haryana election story will be dissected and analysed for months to come. But a few points stand out.
A quiet subterranean consolidation of non-Jat communities like Brahmins, Banias, Scheduled Castes, Punjabis and Other Backward Castes took place without any of them making a noise about it. Contrast this with the high decibel Jat assertion that dominated the airwaves during the election campaign. The high octane coverage of Vinesh Phogat’s journey from the airport to her village in Charkhi Dadri with Congress Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda accompanying her in a colourful cavalcade was not missed. The BJP maintained a distance. The Jat community went delirious with joy, even as the others watched in sullen silence.
The BJP ran an effective low key campaign that focussed on stoking fears of Jat dominance, the return of ‘kharchi parchi’ — the so-called bribe-giving system of handing out jobs — as well as its welfare agenda for smaller backward groups. The BJP’s transparent job recruitment policy resonated with voters, giving them hope that going ahead, the distribution of jobs would be more equitable. Candidates and workers, in small roadside meetings reminded people of how a return of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda style of governance would impact their lives. That they would go back to existing on the fringes of governance while the powerful Jat community would corner government largesse. For many communities, like the Banias and Sainis, bitter memories of the 2016 Jat agitation when they suffered the loss of both property and lives, were rekindled.
More than anything else, however, the Haryana election results reflect a larger social churn in which marginalised communities are openly clamouring for their place in the sun. They remain fearful of the aggressive dominance of a single community, but are willing to quietly hit back to retrieve their rights. The BJP has successfully tapped into this vein of fear.
Whether OBC or Dalit, the overriding theme in the countryside that has led to the current sharp polarisation seems to be their growing aspirations coupled with an acute consciousness of their rights. To say ‘no’ to dominant groups riding roughshod and no longer as willing to make way for powerful communities. Even less willing to wait for a better tomorrow. And so the BJP stepped in and offered to hold their hand.
In rally after rally Amit Shah repeated the mantra — how the BJP was determined to expand reservations for backward castes in Group A and Group B government jobs. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini missed no opportunity to stress his OBC caste, pointedly asking the Congress if they would ever nominate an OBC as chief minister.
The Congress’ high decibel campaign — greater rhetoric, but reduced reliance on cadre support — was no match for the BJP’s meticulous election management, which returned to the RSS’ formidable grassroots network, with pracharaks fanning out into the villages to spread the party’s message. It all happened so quietly, that many even in the BJP were perhaps taken by surprise when the poll results came in.
The BJP gained in rural areas mainly on the strength of the RSS push, winning 32 out of 65 rural seats. It even gained in some Jat dominated seats, winning 18. The OBCs and Dalits in these seats rallied against the Congress; clearly, they outnumbered the Jats.
Uchana Kalan is a case in point. Located in the Jat heartland of Jind, Uchana Kalana was won by a Brahmin, Devender Chaturbhuj Attri, who defeated the scions of two prominent Jat families of Haryana. Dushyant Chautala, former Deputy Chief Minister and great grandson of Chaudhary Devi Lal, stood fifth and forfeited his security deposit. The Congress’ Brijender Singh, great grandson of Sir Chotu Ram and son of former Union Minister Birender Singh, who has represented the constituency several times, lost, by the slimmest of margins, only 32 votes. Attri’s victory is evidence of the BJP’s micro-management tactics in which independent Jat candidates were propped up to divide the Jat votes here. One of them bagged 21,000 more votes than Dushyant Chautala.
Then, on September 12 when the election campaign was peaking, a Congress supporter in Narnaund made a casteist slur against Kumar Selja, the Dalit Congress MP from Sirsa. The video went viral and a case was registered. Hooda, who was leading the Congress’s election campaign dismissed the episode, by saying that the person “who has reportedly said this cannot be a Congress worker.” But Selja’s supporters were enraged. She, herself, stopped campaigning and sat at home for almost a fortnight until she was placated by Rahul Gandhi and persuaded to join a rally in Ambala. As the tallest Dalit leader of the state, Selja was treated shoddily by her own party; soon, she had gone public with her anguish. It was clear that she was being put in the shade — out of Haryana’s 90 constituencies, only nine seats were given to her nominees, compared to the 76 decided by Hooda. She made it clear that she wanted to contest the Assembly election and be considered as a possible chief ministerial candidate, but she wasn’t allowed to do so. The Dalits took the cue and began talking of a non-Jat (read Dalit) CM if the Congress came to power.
After the Narnaund episode, Selja emerged as a symbol of Dalit angst. “If our tallest leader was treated so badly, what can we expect,” asked a Dalit Congress worker from her constituency. Sensing an opportunity, BJP workers worked hard to publicise the video far and wide, in the hope that it would further alienate the Dalits from the Congress. Haryana’s 21 per cent Dalit population which had coalesced around the Congress, began to abandon the party and veer towards the BJP.
Now that all is said and done, it is clear that Kumari Selja has had her revenge. It is also clear that her stand should force the Congress to re-invent itself. The electorate saw through the hollowness of Hooda’s slogan of working for the ‘chattis biradari’ (all 36 castes). Hooda’s loss was the BJP’s gain. Caste consolidation helped the BJP beat a 10-year anti- incumbency, not so much on the strength of its 10-year-long rule but because of the insecurities of Haryana’s lowest castes.
