Gurugram: The Congress stayed away from the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD’s) rally in Haryana’s Kaithal Monday, held to mark the birth anniversary of party founder and former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, while several other leaders of Opposition’s INDIA alliance were in attendance.
Former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, and K.C. Tyagi of the Janata Dal (United) were at the event and took an indirect dig at the Congress by saying that “bigger parties” need to shed their “arrogance” for the sake of unity against the BJP-led NDA government.
INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala, who is making a bid to join the INDIA alliance, had met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi Friday and invited him to the rally.
Abhay had told ThePrint after the meeting that Kharge wished success for the event and said he would discuss the issue of participation in the rally at the party level.
However, former Haryana CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been against any coordination with the INLD and his will seems to have prevailed in the party.
Speaking to ThePrint after Abhay’s invitation to Kharge, Hooda had said the INLD’s rally was meant to mark a birth anniversary, and anyone could go to such an event. He added that so far there was no question of the INLD joining the INDIA alliance.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Shahid Siddiqui and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad were also in attendance at the rally, as was senior BJP leader Chaudhary Birender Singh.
A Union minister during the Modi government’s first term at the Centre (2014 to 2019), Singh addressed the rally before the INDIA alliance leaders and left the venue after his speech.
He told the gathering that he believed in paying tribute to a great leader like Chaudhary Devi Lal, for whom political parties should rise above their differences.
Although it is not the first time that Singh has attended a rally to mark Devi Lal’s birth anniversary — he had also attended one held in his home district of Jind in 2021 — he has of late been reported to be upset with the BJP.
Singh has, on more than one occasion, voiced the need to end the BJP’s alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which was carved out of the INLD and is led by Chaudhary Devi Lal’s great-grandson and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.
Singh’s wife competed against Dushyant in the assembly seat of Uchana in 2014 and 2019, while his son Brijendra faced him in the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
The INLD had said earlier that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav had confirmed their participation in the rally, but all failed to show up.
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‘People ready to oust BJP-JJP govt’
Despite the absence of any Congress leader, most speakers at the rally refrained from any direct attack on the party and targeted the Modi government at the Centre and the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana.
Among those who targeted the Congress were INLD chief and former CM Om Prakash Chautala, who said he faced “10 years in jail just for providing jobs to unemployed youth because the government that came to power after he ruled Haryana (1999 to 2005) had hatched a conspiracy against him”, referring to the teachers’ recruitment scam in which he was convicted and imprisoned.
Om Prakash was succeeded as CM by Hooda (2005 to 2014).
O’Brien was the most severe in attacking the Modi government when he described the women’s reservation bill as another “jumla (fraud)”, saying women were unlikely to get any quota in politics for the next 10 to 15 years.
He said his party leader, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, had been keen to attend the rally but had to miss it because of some unavoidable circumstances. “She has sent a message that the TMC is with the INLD and its leader Abhay Singh Chautala,” he said.
He added that the “bigger parties have to leave their arrogance and keep their ego in their pockets if they are really interested in defeating the BJP”.
“The present NDA government at the Centre works for just 10 rich people and not for the common people. They assured people that demonetisation will bring out black money, but nothing happened. They said that once the BJP comes to power, people will get Rs 15 lakh each in their bank accounts, but nothing happened,” O’Brien said.
Abdullah pointed out that if the Opposition parties planned to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, they could not do it alone.
“We need people like Om Prakash Chautala, Sukhbir Badal and the Congress to come on one platform. Rather than complaining against each other, they need to work together to defeat the BJP,” he said.
Tyagi said that “if we have to win elections in Haryana, we have to be with the INLD and Om Prakash Chautala”.
“But the problem is that we are ready to lose all 10 (Lok Sabha) seats in Haryana but are not ready to divide those seats among the Opposition,” he added.
Badal spoke about his father Parkash Singh Badal’s bonhomie with Chaudhary Devi Lal, and said the Badal and Chautala families had always stood with each other.
Abhay Singh, who completed his state-wide ‘Parivartan Padyatra’ Monday, said the INLD had always brought about a change in Haryana and would do so again in 2024.
“I have visited nearly 2,000 villages of Haryana during my yatra and met people. They are all ready to oust the BJP-JJP government. The INLD is going to form the next government and I will appeal to all other political parties to come with us in this endeavour,” he said, adding that he would travel to the rest of the villages in the state starting October.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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