The BJP maintains that the Haryana government hasn’t mismanaged the violence after the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh
Pragya Kaushika
Amid speculation that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar may resign, the BJP Saturday clarified that there was no such proposal from the state unit and thus no consideration to remove Khattar ‘for now’.
The BJP said the Khattar government handled Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Ram Rahim’s surrender very efficiently.
When asked if there was any talk of holding Khattar accountable for mismanagement in Panchkula, Haryana in-charge Dr. Anil Jain said that there was no lapse by the government.
“There is no consideration of M.L. Khattar’s resignation for now. He has not been summoned to Delhi either. As far as the violence that erupted in Panchkula due to the surrender of Ram Rahim goes, I can say that there are no lapses on part of the government. Rather, the government has handled it very meticulously,” he said.
While Jain refrained from commenting on Khattar’s future, sources in the party said that while the chief minister’s resignation may not be sought immediately. However, his term as chief minister could be shorter than that of his government’s, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Describing the preparations to ensure that there was no violence, Jain praised the government’s handling of the incident.
“The process involved bringing Baba to the court, courting arrest in case of conviction and transporting him to prison which was no small feat. We were anticipating violence even before the Dera chief moved out of his ashram.”
“But it was contained and we managed to quell the pre-arrest violence. The state government made all attempts to ensure that the event would go off peacefully but given the fanatic followers some trouble was expected,” Jain said.
Jain said that while the incidents of violence were unfortunate, the state government contained the violence with ‘minimum possible harm’.
“There are few causalities. Those who died were among the trouble makers and rioters. A few security officers were injured but common people remained safe,” he said.
Elaborating on the kind of trouble the state government was expecting, Jain said the state government had been expecting attempts at self-immolation, than a violent mob attacking private and government vehicles.
“We had arranged for blankets and fire extinguishers in every police van as we expected the followers to attempt self-immolation,” Jain said.