Haryana’s legacy of Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram

Haryana, which goes to the polls on October 5, has had several ‘double-engine’ governments over the decades, with the same party in power in the state as well as at the Centre. Even when no party could muster a majority in the Assembly, the ruling party at the Centre was able to form a government in the state.

Haryana is no stranger to defections by politicians, who set aside ethical or moral considerations. Poaching of MLAs and hiding them in resorts to keep them away from the lure of monetary benefits and promises of ministerial berths have become the new norm in Indian politics.

In 1967, political defections became an accepted phenomenon. Haryana set the trend when MLA Gaya Lal changed his political affiliation thrice in a day. Hence, the term ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’ was coined to denote defections. Gaya Lal’s son Udai Bhan, the current president of the Haryana Congress, was once a member of the Lok Dal.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had given the party ticket to five Haryana leaders with a Congress background. The defection of Rao Inderjit Singh, Arvind Sharma, Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Dharambir Singh and Chaudhary Birender Singh from the Congress to the BJP helped the saffron party consolidate its position in the state.

By the 1980s, Haryana’s politicians had mastered the craft of defection. In 1980, fearing the dismissal of his government after the return of Indira Gandhi as PM, Bhajan Lal, then Chief Minister, defected with his entire Cabinet from the Janata Party to the Congress. One had witnessed defections of legislators, but a CM jumping ship with his entire Cabinet was virtually unheard of. This happened decades before the BJP came up with ‘Operation Lotus’ to engineer mass defections.

The ruling party feared that their members would defect and join the Opposition ranks and destabilise the government. The Opposition parties, too, feared that their members would be poached by the ruling party. In 2009, the Congress, falling short of a majority in the state, lured five MLAs of the Haryana Janhit Congress and one MLA of the BSP to form a majority.

The anti-defection law of 1985 was meant to stop elected representatives from deserting the parties on whose symbol they had been elected. In order to circumvent the law, a new modus operandi was devised: make some elected members resign from their seats, hence reducing the strength of the opponents, and then get them elected from the party they had switched their allegiance to. In recent years, ‘Operation Lotus’ failed in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, but was successful in Madhya Pradesh.

Indian politics exemplifies the crassness associated with Machiavellian tactics. ‘Ghar wapsi’ is a term used by these uncanny politicians to describe their return to the party they had left. ‘Homecoming’ is considered as ‘rediscovering’ one’s roots. Chaudhary Birender Singh moved from the Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was back in the grand old party earlier this year. This is a classic case of ‘ghar wapsi’ or the return of the prodigal son.

In the current Assembly elections, party-hopping is again the flavour of the season. Voters are confused that their representatives, elected on the symbol of a particular party in the previous elections, are now contesting from the very party that they had opposed five years ago. The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) is on a sticky wicket as several of its elected members, including ministers, have defected to other parties, leaving the mother-son duo (Naina and Dushyant Chautala) to fend for themselves.

The BJP, which regarded itself as a party strongly rooted in ideology, had no qualms about letting Kiran Choudhry and her daughter join its ranks and also getting her elected as a Rajya Sabha member. In 1996, the BJP had formed an alliance with Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party, ignoring what its leaders had said about the former Congress stalwart’s role during the Emergency. So, one can infer that ideology often takes a back seat in Indian politics and ethical pronouncements are just for public consumption. All parties need ‘notable’ and ‘electable’ leaders to garner votes and extend their social support base, and that is why they have no compunction about co-opting leaders who hold diametrically opposite views.

Terms such as ‘ghar wapsi’ and ‘mausam vigyanik’ indicate the acceptance of defection as something legitimate. Ram Vilas Paswan was seen as the classic ‘mausam vigyanik’ who always knew which way the wind was blowing. He was a Cabinet minister in governments led by the BJP as well as the Congress.

Political pundits are wondering whether Haryana could experience ‘Operation Lotus’ in case the BJP does not emerge as the single largest party in the Assembly elections. Will there be a repeat of history like in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka or Rajasthan, where one faction of the Congress aided the ruling party at the Centre in subverting the mandate of the people? There is a perceptible anti-incumbency wave against the ruling party, making one wonder whether the ruling dispensation at the Centre would accept a government led by the Congress in Haryana.

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are the prime providers of social support for movements against the Centre. That is why there are apprehensions regarding smooth transfer of power if there is a verdict against the ruling party.