Gurugram: Union minister and Haryana stalwart Rao Inderjit Singh has long been known as a straight-talker, whether during his stint in the BJP or the Congress before that. His plain-speaking was in evidence soon after communal clashes broke out in Haryana’s Nuh and Gurugram last week, killing six people in all.
Even as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar pointed towards a “conspiracy” behind the attack on a religious procession carried out by Hindutva groups in Nuh on 31 July, Singh questioned the presence of weapons among participants of the Braj Mandal Yatra carried out by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Matra Shakti Durga Vahini.
“Who goes to a yatra with sticks and swords? It is wrong,” said Singh, who is the MP of Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency, of which Nuh is a part.
Subsequently, Singh tweeted a picture of himself with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. In Hindi, he wrote that the two had discussed establishing a Rapid Action Force (RAF) camp in Nuh’s district’s Indri village.
“On the instructions of the home minister, the Haryana government has approved the change of land use for the establishment of the RAF camp. The foundation stone will be laid soon,” he wrote.
पिछले दिनों केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री @AmitShah जी से भेंट कर नूंह के गांव इंडरी में आरएएफ कैंप की स्थापना पर चर्चा की, केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री के निर्देश पर हरियाणा सरकार ने इस दिशा में कदम बढ़ाते हुए RAF कैंप की स्थापना हेतु चेंज आफ लैंड यूज़ की मंजूरी दे दी है, इसका शीघ्र शिलान्यास होगा। pic.twitter.com/XiskOygqiV
— Rao Inderjit Singh (@Rao_InderjitS) August 3, 2023
This tweet only hinted at Singh’s five-year endeavour to set up the RAF camp. The project had been in limbo for want of change of land use (CLU) and other clearances from the Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana. The long-pending CLU file was reportedly cleared only a day after the eruption of violence in Nuh.
Singh, however, still had plenty to say. At a media interaction this week on the sidelines of a function at the soon-to-be-upgraded Pataudi Railway Station in Gurugram district, he voiced concerns about a communal atmosphere prevailing in the region, suggesting it could tarnish Gurgaon’s reputation as the “Millennium City.”
He also criticised the Khattar government for its purported role in delaying the establishment of an RAF camp in Nuh, claiming that this could have helped stem the violence earlier.
Political insiders who have worked closely with Singh, who was also a minister in the first Manmohan Singh cabinet say that he has always been outspoken— whether he was taking on the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government or the Khattar administration.
“He has always been in the habit of calling a spade a spade and does not sugarcoat things,” said a Congress leader who has observed Rao Inderjit Singh’s politics from close quarters, speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
ThePrint called Rao Inderjit Singh as well as his personal secretary for comment, but did not receive a response.
Here’s a look at Singh’s political career so far, his run-ins with the Khattar government, and the latest flashpoints over Nuh and the proposed RAF camp.
Also Read: ‘BJP conspiracy to polarise’ or ‘unprovoked attack’? Haryana’s khaps divided over Nuh
Who is Rao Inderjit Singh?
A scion of the Rampura House of the erstwhile State of Rewari, Rao Inderjit Singh comes from an illustrious political lineage. His father Rao Birender Singh was the second Chief Minister of Haryana, albeit briefly, from March 24, 1967, to November 2, 1967. The senior Singh, notably, is credited with coining the phrase “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” to refer to horsetrading and turncoating in politics.
Like his father, who defected from the Congress and formed his own party, Rao Inderjit Singh is no stranger to political cross-overs either.
After a long stint in the Congress and serving as a Union minister in the first Manmohan Singh cabinet from 2004 to 2009, he quit the party in 2013 and jumped ship to the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
He is currently serving as minister of state (independent charge) in two ministries —Statistics & Programme Implementation, as well as Corporate Affairs.
Considered to be one of the most powerful leaders of the Ahirwal belt of southern Haryana, spanning Mahendragarh, Rewari, and Gurugram districts, and characterised by a significant Yadav population, Rao Inderjit Singh started his political career in the 1970s. He is a four-time MLA and is presently in his fifth term as a Lok Sabha MP.
During his last term as Congress MP from 2009 to 2014, Rao Inderjit Singh’s relations with the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were known to be strained.
He accused Hooda of regional discrimination and of developing his own constituency Rohtak at the cost of the rest of Haryana.
According to Haryana-based political analyst Yoginder Gupta, Singh harboured ambitions of becoming CM even in 2005, but the Congress high command ultimately favoured Hooda for the role.
“Being a son of Haryana’s second CM and with nine electoral victories in the state assembly and Parliament under his belt, it was but natural for Rao Inderjit Singh to nurse an aspiration to become CM,” he said.
However, his equation with present CM Khattar, too, has been marked by various conflicts. Gupta believes this may be linked to the issue of political ‘seniority’.
“Hooda still matches Rao’s electoral exploits with four victories each in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, but Khattar is much more junior than Rao Inderjit Singh in this regard because he has won just two assembly polls so far,” he said.
Rao Inderjit Singh is now said to be grooming his daughter Aarti Singh Rao, an upcoming BJP leader in Haryana, as his successor in politics.
Run-ins with Khattar
Rao Inderjit Singh’s longstanding rift with CM Khattar is no secret in Haryana.
For instance, back in 2018, at a function in Gurugram to mark the BJP’s four years in power and inaugurate a flyover, Singh made no attempts to camouflage his ire at being made to wait for nearly an hour by Khattar before he could make his speech.
Singh reportedly told the gathering that the flyover had been “built by the central government, but the CM didn’t have time to inaugurate it”. His statements were made even as CM Khattar sat on the dais.
Since then, several flashpoints have emerged, some with echoes of Singh’s criticism of Hooda over selective development.
Last August, for example, Singh accused the BJP-JJP coalition government of ignoring Haryana’s Ahirwal belt. Speaking at a public event in Rewari, he praised PM Modi but said that the successive Congress and BJP governments in Haryana had neglected the region despite being in power “because of the Ahirwal vote”.
A few months prior to this, speaking at a function to mark the inauguration of the Gurugram–Jaipur expressway on 9 March 2022, Singh said that wherever he went to his constituency, people asked him about the pending project.
“They tell me that development projects in my area are being delayed because I don’t enjoy the best of relations with the CM,” he added.
Khattar was quick to issue a rejoinder, saying that Singh had focused only on pending work while ignoring what had been completed.
“I wish you also brought along a list of what we have done for the area. You would have found that 90 percent of the promises have been fulfilled,” Khattar had said.
Latest flashpoints— Nuh, RAF camp
This week, speaking to mediapersons in Pataudi, Singh flagged the Nuh issue once again, later tweeting a video of the interaction.
He questioned whether allowing such tensions to persist in the Mewat region could potentially lead to a situation akin to the exodus of Hindus witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir. The Mewat region, where Nuh is situated, is home to a significant population of Meo Muslims.
He also said that while the police would investigate the violence and bring perpetrators to book, they must also hold accountable those responsible for fomenting tension in Mewat, which ultimately led to the clashes.
This appeared to be a reference, at least partly, to the actions of cow vigilantes who have reportedly ramped up their activities in the area in the last year or so.
Shortly before the VHP yatra, inflammatory videos were allegedly posted on social media by gau rakshaks Monu Manesar and Bittu Bajarangi. Manesar, who has been part of the Haryana government’s cow protection machinery, is also an accused in the murder case of Nasir and Junaid, two Muslim men whose charred remains were discovered in Loharu village this February.
“Today, Gurugram is called the Millennium City. If we have violence at Gurugram’s doorsteps… what kind of image will we have around the globe? If we want to become a $5 trillion economy by 2030, it can only be achieved by peace and harmony. We can’t achieve that with such controversies,” the minister said.
Rao Inderjit Singh also took a swipe at the Khattar government, recalling that the central government had decided to set up an RAF camp in Nuh district after a 2014 communal clash in Tauru town. He claimed that while land for the camp was provided at Indri village in 2017, the state government had dragged its feet on the CLU, leading to grave consequences.
“Had the CLU been granted on time, and the other works like providing electricity, drinking water, and road connectivity been provided to the site, the unavoidable six to seven hours that the additional forces took for reaching Nuh could have been saved and the situation could have been brought under control a little earlier,” he said.
Notably, on 4 October 2022, Singh had shot off a letter to Khattar, drawing his attention to the fact that despite approval by the Union Home Ministry in 2018, the proposed RAF camp in Indri had encountered significant delays due to a lack of requisites such as the CLU, 11-KV power line, drinking water arrangements, and a service road to the Kundli Manesar Palwal (KMP) Expressway for the RAF vehicles.
“Nuh is one of the most sensitive areas of Haryana. The area has witnessed violence during Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. In 2014, Tauru town in Nuh witnessed communal violence and the police were found wanting because of the lesser numbers,” Singh’s letter said.
“It took time for the additional forces to arrive and by that time, the rioters ruled the roost. In view of this, a demand was made to the Centre to establish a camp for the CRPF or a central force,” the letter added.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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