By honouring Jat legend, Modi hopes to get the community in BJP’s corner, and appease Sir Chhotu Ram’s grandson and union minister Birender Singh.
Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a 64-feet tall statue of Sir Chhotu Ram, one of India’s most illustrious Jat-farmer leaders, in Haryana’s Rohtak on 9 October.
Knighted by the British, Chhotu Ram is credited with evoking group consciousness among Jat peasantry, as well as ushering in a host of agrarian reforms as a minister in undivided Punjab in British India.
The statue has been constructed at Chhotu Ram’s native village Garhi Sampla in Rohtak district. Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, Chhotu Ram’s grandson, tweeted that the PM will also address a rally at Sampla.
Unparallelled legacy
Initially a Congressman, Sir Chhotu Ram co-founded the Unionist Party, which won elections in 1935 to form the provincial government in undivided Punjab. The Jats of Haryana swear by his name; he is often invoked at election time.
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Chhotu Ram’s most memorable contribution were the over dozen acts passed while he was revenue minister, which brought relief to farmers reeling under money lenders’ debt and restoring rights of the tiller.
He is credited with giving approval to the construction of the Bhakhra dam days before he died in 1945.
Choosing Rohtak over Khattar’s Karnal
The programme to unveil Sir Chhotu Ram’s statue was one of the several things the PM was expected to do during his visit to the state on Haryana Day — 1 November.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar met the PM on 29 September to discuss the details of the programme, and since the event will be held less than a week after the BJP’s government’s fourth anniversary, the plan was to hold the rally at Khattar’s constituency, Karnal.
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But the PM obviously decided not to wait for 1 November to honour Sir Chhotu Ram, and instead chose to hold a rally first in Rohtak, in the Jat heartland.
The rally will be attended by farmers and Jats from across the state and the PM is expected to talk about his government’s pro-farmer announcements like the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyaan (PM-AASHA), the increase in minimum support prices etc.
Khattar met Birender Singh Tuesday evening to chalk out the details of the PM’s programme.
Significance of the programme
Sir Chhotu Ram is among the tallest Jat leader in history, and the PM’s programme to unveil his statue is being seen as much more than a mere symbolic appreciation of the contribution of Jats and farmers in nation-building.
The move, say political analysts, is a clear attempt to woo the tricky Jat voter in Haryana ahead of the Lok Sabha and assembly elections due next year.
Haryana’s powerful Jat peasantry, constituting almost 25 per cent of the state’s voter base, has so far largely ignored the BJP. Even when it came to power in 2014, the BJP failed to get a majority of the Jat vote, which has traditionally gone to the Indian National Lok Dal founded by Chaudhary Devi Lal, or the Congress when led by a Jat leader, such as the 10 years when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power.
Jats are unhappy that the BJP chose a non-Jat Punjabi, Khattar, as chief minister. Khattar, backed by the RSS, was chosen over prominent Jat leaders like Captain Abhimanyu and O.P. Dhankar.
However, Khattar has tried his best to get the Jats behind him. In 2016, he was seen as taking an extremely “soft” stand during three days of violent protests by the Jats for reservation. The government has since met almost every demand put forth by Jat organisations, including withdrawing criminal cases against those who indulged in the violent protests that left 30 people dead and several injured.
The Jat vote bank is also significant for the BJP because the INLD has stitched up an unconventional Jat-Dalit alliance for the forthcoming elections.
Appeasing Birender Singh
With this move, the BJP also intends to remove any resentment that Birender Singh might be nursing since he was removed from three ‘people’s ministries’ —rural development, Panchayati Raj, and drinking water and sanitation — and made minister of steel in July 2016.
A prominent Jat leader himself, Birender Singh remained a dyed-in-the-wool Congressman for over 40 years before he joined the BJP just before the Haryana assembly elections in 2014. He was made a minister in the Modi cabinet, while his wife Prem Lata was given an assembly ticket from Uchana, where she won.
Birender Singh had openly rebelled against Hooda’s leadership of the Congress, and in joining the BJP, he had expected to fill the Jat vacuum in the party. In welcoming him aboard, the BJP had hoped to take over Sir Chhotu Ram’s legacy.
A person who can’t even pronounce CH. CHOTTU RAM’s name properly, is giving lecture on the possible reasons for unveiling his statue. FYI its CHOTTU not CHOTTA madam. Journalist like you don’t even have an iota of the ground reality and sermon us from GLOBAL WARMING HUBS. Jaats might be illiterate but not fools, their is a saying in North India Anpadh Jaat Padhe likhe barabar aur Padha Likha Jaat Bhagwan Barabar. So stop blaming JAAT for 2016 riot which was sparked by politicians for their personal gains and to deviate Jaats from BJP.
There is not a single incident the journalist at ThePrint believes that PM might be doing of belief, everything is politics for you. U guys need to rethink n do some introspection that how can one man do everything just for politics. Even law of average would tell you how much baised u guys are. I have huge respect for SG and his unbaised objectivity which he articulated very well. U guys are lucky u r around him, please learn. Also note, I m not Modi Bhakt.