Gurugram: In what is being perceived by his followers in the BJP as a shot in the arm in the election year, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar received appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s interaction with the beneficiaries of various government welfare schemes.
During his video interaction with beneficiaries of welfare scheme’s under the Centre’s ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yojna’ programme, the Prime Minister — while speaking to a farmer from Rohtak — described Khattar as “Bahut mazboot aadmi” (a very strong man), who kensures people get the benefits of the schemes launched by the government.
Khattar posted a video clipping of the event on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) a day later, thanking Modi on behalf of all the beneficiaries.
“Your faith and encouragement will guide us and strengthen our will to reach the last person (in the queue) and fulfil your resolution of “Antyodaya” [a state-led initiative for resource use and management to ensure development of rural areas]. Ram Ram [greetings’ to you from Haryana,” Khattar said in his post, in which he also tagged Modi.
With Haryana to go to polls in October this year, months after 2024’s scheduled general elections, the Prime Minister’s public appreciation of Khattar is being seen in political circles in Haryana as backing of the CM by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s central leadership.
According to Khattar’s chief media coordinator Sudesh Kataria, Wednesday’s mention was not the first time PM Modi had praised the Haryana CM in his speeches or personal meetings.
“During the past more than nine years, ever since CM saab took over the reins of the state in October 2014, Modi ji have been showering praises on him because of his performance and new initiatives for the betterment of people. Normally, the state governments adopt schemes introduced by the Centre, but it was for the first time that the Centre under Modi Ji adopted Swamitva scheme introduced by Haryana on the initiatives of CM Saab,” said Kataria.
The Swamitva scheme is a reformative step towards the establishment of clear ownership of property in rural inhabited (abadi) areas, called within the Lal Dora in local parlance, by mapping land parcels using drone technology and providing ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners with issuance of legal ownership cards (Property cards/Title deeds) to the property owners. It was introduced in Haryana in 2021 and adopted by the Centre last year.
According to Kataria, the ‘Parivar Pehchan Patra’ scheme (under which the Haryana government issues every family a unique identity) was another state initiative that received accolades from the Centre, with several other states showing interest in adopting it.
Opposition leaders and political analysts ThePrint spoke to, however, were less impressed by Modi’s accolades for Hooda.
According to Congress leader and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, there is “nothing unusual” in a PM praising a CM from his own party.
“The question is what people of Haryana say about Manohar Lal Khattar. He is a non-performer chief minister,” said Hooda, currently leader of Opposition in the Haryana assembly.
Hooda added: “Whatever Congress government led by me from 2005 to 2014 did, he has undone that all. We promoted sports by announcing cash awards and police jobs to medal-winning sportspersons, but now sportspersons from Haryana are fighting for justice and returning their awards because of the insensitive attitude of the government [a reference to a protest by wrestlers against former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh].
“We made Haryana the number one state in per capita income, per capita investment, and many other fields, but Khattar has made Haryana number one in corruption, lawlessness, unemployment, inflation, and drug addiction,” he further alleged.
Hemant Atri, a political analyst from Haryana described the event in which Modi praised Khattar as an exercise in public relations.
“Everyone knows the intimacy between Modi and Khattar. Despite all odds and miserable failures [a reference to incidents of caste and communal violence in the state and law and order and unemployment issues], Khattar has survived in power for more than nine years merely because of Modi’s blessing,” Atri told ThePrint.
He also alleged that the person who spoke to Modi during his interaction with the beneficiaries appeared to have been parroting a scripted speech.
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What Modi said
According to Jagdish Chopra, a senior BJP leader who has worked with Khattar as political advisor during his first term as CM, and has also been chairman of the Haryana Tourism Development Corporation, the PM’s trust in Khattar’s capabilities date back to the late ’90s when the former was in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana.
“Khattar saab, who used to stay in the BJP’s state office in [Haryana’s] Rohtak, used a computer in 1997 when very few people used them. I remember once I was in the party office in Rohtak with him, when he started preparing identity cards for the participants of the Shakti Kendra Pramukhs on his computers. While I went to bed a little past midnight, Khattar ji worked till the wee hours of the next morning. Modi ji was also computer savvy and had seen Khattar ji’s hard work and dedication,” Chopra told ThePrint.
The former political advisor to Khattar stressed that Modi’s praise of the Haryana CM was mere formality, but stems from his knowledge of khattar’s “capabilities and integrity”.
He added: “It is because of Khattar ji’s interest in computers that he has been able to bring in digitisation resulting in transparency in governance. It is because of the digitisation introduced by the CM and also because of his honesty that the benefits of government schemes are percolating to those on the end of the queue.”
On Wednesday, one government scheme “beneficiary” PM Modi spoke to was a man who introduced himself as Sandeep, a small farmer from Ajaib village of Rohtak.
When the PM asked him whether he was receiving the Rs. 2000 in his account due him under the Kisan Nidhi Scheme, the man replied in the affirmative.
Modi said it was good that he knew it. But some farmers don’t even know because the money gets transferred in their accounts and they don’t even check it.
“In one such case, one of our governor saabs asked a farmer whether he was getting funds under the Kisan Nidhi fund and the farmer replied in the negative. But our governor saab was a zameeni (grounded) person. He asked the farmer to bring his passbook. When he saw the passbook the amount was showing credited in the account. The governor saab showed the entry to the farmer and only then he came to know that he was getting the money,” Modi said.
The PM then asked Sandeep whether he was getting free ration to which the latter again replied in the affirmative.
“The old system when ration depot holders used to display the board of stocks finished must have stopped?” Modi asked Sandeep.
When the Rohtak farmer again nodded his head in confirmation, Modi said, “Khattar saab bahut mazboot aadmi hai. Vo in cheezon ka pura dhyan rakhte hai [Khattar Saab is a very strong man. He keeps checks on such things].”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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