Ladwa (Kurukshetra): Political parties should come together to develop a transparent mechanism for funding in which the identity of donors should be secret, industrialist-politician Naveen Jindal has said in what is arguably the first prominent voice from the corporate sector on the electoral bonds controversy.
Campaigning in Kurukshetra Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from the parliamentary seat, told ThePrint that his objective is to develop the land where the battle of Mahabharata took place on the lines of Ayodhya and Kashi.
Jindal refused to get into the merits or demerits of the controversial electoral bonds issue and said that it was a deep subject, there are pros and cons to everything and, hence, this can’t be explained in a minute or so.
“It is important to keep the identity of a donor secret in political funding. Otherwise, everybody will say why ‘X’ amounts to Party A and ‘Y’ amounts to Party B. Even in our traditions, donations have to be given quietly. But again, this is my view. There has to be debate among political parties on this issue and a consensus has to be reached. After all, the political parties need funding, and it has to be a system and a transparent system,” Jindal told ThePrint in an exclusive interview during his campaign in the Kurukshetra’s Ladwa assembly segment Thursday.
According to him, political parties should sit together and find out a transparent method. “There has to be a way on how to contribute to political parties. Even the Supreme Court’s approval should be obtained so that there is no controversy later,” he asserted.
In the Kurukshetra election scheduled for 25 May, Jindal is pitted against 31 candidates, including Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sushil Gupta and Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Abhay Singh Chautala.
Jindal successfully contested Kurukshetra seat as a Congress candidate in 2004 and 2009. He lost the seat to BJP’s Raj Kumar Saini in 2014 and didn’t contest the elections in 2019. This time, he resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP, following which he was immediately named the party’s candidate for this seat.
On a vigorous campaign trail, starting with a roadshow in Ladwa town and continuing with a series of public addresses across a dozen villages, the industrialist-politician addressed the crowd and made a series of poll promises.
At Bapdi village, Jindal told a gathering, many of them women, that this was not an election for issues like electricity or repair of streets and grains, but a national election where “we decide who is going to be our prime minister for the next five years, and there is no better leader than PM Narendra Modi.”
However, on the ground, the sentiments were different. Most people ThePrint spoke to believed that, unlike in 2014 and 2019 when the election results were a foregone conclusion because of a strong Modi wave, “it’s not a cakewalk for any candidate this time”.
While Malkiat Singh, a Ladwa resident and a member of the Ravidassia community of the Scheduled Castes, said that the BJP has done a lot for the poor in the past 10 years, Balkar Singh Labana, a Sikh, from Navarsi village claimed that the farming community is angry with the BJP this time.
“Our people kept sitting in the open on Delhi borders for more than a year. Over 750 died. Nobody in the BJP even bothered about their lives,” Labana told ThePrint.
Jindal’s ‘Sankalp Patra’
In the heart of Bapdi village, Jindal shared with the villagers his commitment to their advancement through his “Sankalp Patra” (vision document), which he would implement from his own funds. He displayed the professionally printed document and distributed copies among the villagers through a BJP worker.
“I will set up two Kaushal Vikas Kendra (vocational training institutes) for you in Kurukshetra. This will entail spending hundreds of crores and the amount will be spent by me from my sources. Every year, 10,000 boys and girls will get world-class training, which would prepare them for jobs within the country and abroad,” Jindal told the audience.
He went on to add that intelligent girls who were unable to pursue their studies due to a lack of funds would receive Jindal Foundation scholarships — a declaration met with cheers, especially from girls and women present.
The BJP leader also aspires to elevate Kurukshetra to the ranks of Ayodhya and Kashi — enhancing its historical and cultural significance while also modernising rural infrastructure to global standards.
“We would like to develop Kurukshetra like Ayodhya and Kashi. We want to develop the city grandly and a lot of work is already happening. I would also like to see the villages in India like those in the US or Europe — with basic infrastructure. Villages should be nice, neat and clean. It’s not like this today. Things are getting better but a lot more needs to be done,” Jindal said.
Meanwhile, amid Haryana’s caste-driven political landscape, Jindal urged the villagers to prioritise merit over caste when casting their votes. “If you find sincerity in my eyes if you feel I am speaking from my heart, and if you feel I am 100 times better than my opponents, then vote for me in the election,” he implored.
‘Inspired by Modi’
Heading to the next village in his car, Jindal said that what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had done for the country in the past 10 years was “unparalleled”.
“I joined the BJP because I am inspired by the leadership of Mr Narendra Modi and the way he has worked in the past 10 years. Also, people from my area had been asking me to join the BJP,” he said when asked about switching parties ahead of elections.
Discounting his INDIA bloc opponent, AAP state president Sushil Gupta, Jindal said that the AAP had lost its credibility as a party. “Many people used to appreciate the work of the Aam Aadmi Party but the way the party’s leaders have been involved in the liquor scam and the recent incident with their Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, the party’s credibility has been badly eroded.”
To a question on a debate over the change of the Constitution if the BJP comes to power with a two-thirds majority, Jindal said such canards were being spread by the Opposition parties for their vested interests.
“The Constitution is sacred for all. Has the BJP made any changes in the Constitution in the past 10 years? These are lies being spread by some vested interests to spread falsehood among people,” he asserted.
When reminded that the BJP MPs and candidates have been claiming this during the election campaigns, Jindal said that unless a party spokesperson says something “it doesn’t matter what anyone else says”.
“Those who spoke were not authorised to speak on this issue on behalf of the party. BJP has several thousand leaders and a number of MPs. Even if I say something, as I was an MP earlier, this doesn’t mean that it becomes the party’s official stance. There is no such plan to change the Constitution. The Constitution is sacred for all. Tomorrow, if the whole country wants some change, it’s a different thing, but right now, there is no such plan,” Jindal told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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