Nuh, Haryana: As Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ entered Haryana Wednesday, chants of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri’s famous ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan‘ slogan were heard in Firozpur Jhirka village in the state, but with a slight modification. The phrase ‘Jai Pehelwan’ (referring to a wrestler) was added to it.
जय जवान, जय किसान, जय पहलवान..
श्री @RahulGandhi जी के नेतृत्व में हरियाणा में #BharatJodoYatra का सफर आगे बढ़ रहा है। pic.twitter.com/MvH7ZaxgnY
— Bhupinder S Hooda (@BhupinderShooda) December 21, 2022
During the campaign for the Haryana assembly elections in 2014, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the same slogan at Firozpur Jhirka. The Congress, however, lost that election.
Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had to give up his chair at the time, said the slogan was more relevant to the state now than before.
Speaking to ThePrint, on the sidelines of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Hooda said by ‘pehelwan’ the party did not just refer to wrestlers but all sportspersons.
“This was a part of our manifesto and also a major policy focus when Congress was in government in the state. Our government had a robust sports policy because of which the youth brought pride to the state and the country. It also provides a good platform to our youth,” he said.
Emphasising on the issue further, Hooda added, “In the Commonwealth Games, for example, 22 medals belonged to Haryana. In the Olympics, again, India won six medals, of which four were secured by people from Haryana.”
Congress’s walkathon will take place in two phases across Haryana. The first phase, which began Wednesday, will end Saturday with the yatra entering Delhi. Thereafter, it will enter Haryana again via Uttar Pradesh, in the second week of January.
Sources in-charge of organising the yatra in Haryana told ThePrint that a mega event with ‘pehelwans’ has been planned in the second leg of the walkathon. In the first phase of the journey, Gandhi met ex-servicemen and farmers.
Gandhi also met wrestlers in Rajasthan, when he visited an ‘akhada’ (a traditional wrestling ground).
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Sports & politics in Haryana
It is often said that in Haryana a lot of the politics happen in its akhadas. Extrapolating from that, it is, therefore, no surprise that sports have become an issue of electoral importance.
Earlier this year, the Haryana government revoked its decision to charge fees to players for practicing in stadiums. The repeal came after sustained protests by the Congress-led Opposition in the state.
A lawn tennis player himself, Hooda says policies related to sports are close to his heart.
“Through our sports policy, we gave sportspersons initiative, created infrastructure for them and also assured them a future. We had a policy of ‘padak laao, pad paao‘ . If anyone won a medal for the country, we’d give them a stable and lucrative job,” he said.
“We built sports stadiums in every town and village. But once the Congress government was gone, the BJP-JJP made no effort to maintain these stadiums and instead sought to make money from them,” he added.
Of the total number of ‘yatris‘ in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, about 10 per cent are from Haryana. True to the slogan, many of them either have a background in farming or sports or come from families having association with the armed forces.
“The BJP has no achievements to project. No segment of Haryana’s society is happy with them, be it farmers, workers, businessmen, rural folk or urban folk. This is a government that does event management and that’s about it,” said Hooda.
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