Gurugram: Former Union minister Birender Singh announced Monday that he would exit from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) if it continues the alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana.
Though Singh claimed that his ‘Meri Awaaz Suno’ rally was non-political, he did not himself refrain from taking digs at the BJP and had words of praise for Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi.
Addressing the rally in Jind, Singh said that the BJP was a victim of misunderstanding that Dushyant Chautala would bring votes in Haryana. “When the party has lost whatever little votes it had, what will it get for the BJP?” he said.
Without naming the JJP leaders, the BJP leader alleged that the level of corruption seen in the party in the last four years was never witnessed earlier in Haryana.
“When he came with his new party in 2019, people thought as if an angel had descended from the skies, and as if he was the incarnation of Chaudhary Devi Lal. But in these four years, people have understood that the way they were cheated had never happened in the state’s history,” Singh said, referring to Dushyant and his JJP.
The Jat leader’s attack on the Dushyant and JJP comes at a time when there is uncertainty surrounding the candidature of his wife Prem Lata and son Brijendra Singh in the run-up to the next year’s general and assembly elections.
The two Jat leaders have crossed swords earlier as Dushyant defeated Singh’s wife in Uchana, Singh’s traditional assembly seat, in 2019. The Haryana deputy chief minister has announced that he would contest from that seat in the next state election.
Though Dushyant maintains that his party is preparing for all 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana, the JJP says it will stake claims to Hisar and Bhiwani if the election is contested in alliance because the Chautala family has won both these seats in the past. Currently, all 10 seats are with the BJP.
‘Shall I not stand with my farmer brothers’
At the rally, Singh said that he was advised by some of his friends that he was seen swimming against the stream, be it speaking in favour of farm agitation or protests by wrestlers.
The 77-year-old BJP leader said he told them that it is not in his DNA to keep quiet when injustice is being done to people in front of his eyes. “Shall I not stand with my farmer brothers when their rights are being sacrificed? Shall I not stand with my wrestler daughters who tell them that they are being sexually harassed?” he asked.
Singh hit out at the central government’s scheme of giving Rs 2,000 every four months to the farmers, saying that the government should give them remunerative prices for their crops rather than giving any ’Khairaat’ (charity)
“Some BJP leaders tell me that the party gave me respect and a berth in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. I always tell them that there is no doubt that the BJP and PM Modi have given me respect. I am always grateful for that. But, at the same time, I remind them that they should not mistake that the BJP came to power in Haryana in 2014 only after people like Rao Inderjit Singh, Bhiwani MP Dharambir Singh, Sonipat MP Ramesh Kaushik, and I left the Congress and joined the BJP. Otherwise, people won’t have voted for the BJP in such huge numbers,” he said.
Singh had switched over to BJP from the Congress ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha after his son became the BJP MP from Hisar by defeating Dushyant in 2019.
Talking about the Congress, Singh said that he began politics there and went on to remain for 42 years during which he enjoyed the confidence of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi. He left the party only because of one single incident and he told this to Sonia Gandhi as well as to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he met him for the first time, the former Union minister said.
“In June 2013, I received a communication from the Rashtrapati Bhavan that I would be inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet the next day. Nearly 5,000-6,000 supporters gathered in Delhi for the swearing-in. Suddenly, I was informed at 11 am that I would not be inducted this time. I didn’t have any problem with not being inducted into the Cabinet at all. But the way I was insulted was difficult to swallow. I still continued with the Congress for nearly a year,” he said.
In an indirect attack on the BJP, Singh further said that he would oppose all those who tried to divide people on caste and religion irrespective of the consequences.
At the rally, Brijendra Singh urged his father to do “whatever his inner voice says is right”. “Please don’t bother about my future. You have been in politics for more than 50 years. Take a decision that you think is in the best interest of people,” he added.
Former Punjab MP Jagmeet Singh Brar, agriculture economist Devender Sharma, former Haryana DGP M.S. Malik, and Punjabi actor and activist Sonia Mann and several others spoke on this occasion. The rally also passed a resolution seeking the Bharat Ratna for agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, who died recently.
(Edited by Tony Rai)