The biggest political change took place when the first ever BJP government came into power in Haryana on October 26, 2014. A first non-jat chief minister in 18 years and a former Rashtriya Swayamswak Sangh Pracharak and greenhorn MLA Manohar Lal Khattar took over as chief minister.

Making predictions in politics is always hazardous. But it is imperative to examine how these changes are likely to paint the state’s future political and governance scenarios.

161 days are too short a period to pass any judgment on the performance of a new government empowered to rule for 1815 days. But the period is enough for dissecting its functioning and its likely ramifications. Take ideology.

During Haryana’s 50 years of life neither the BJP nor its ideological mentor RSS could ever acquire a meaningful popular base or have a notable presence in the state Assembly. It was the Modi storm which catapulted the party into power by gaining its own majority in the 2014 Assembly polls. It is ironical that after gaining the title of one of India’s industrially advanced states, Haryana has now earned the dubious distinction of being made one of the pioneer BJP-ruled states introducing the saffron party’s divisive Hindutva agenda with vengeance.

The government is saffronising education and other areas of its functioning. Teaching of Gita is being made compulsory in schools. A five-member committee of the State Council of Educational Research and Training has prepared a blueprint for teaching the Hindu scripture in schools in the next academic session. India being a multi-cultural and multi-religion nation, its religious minorities can now also demand that teaching of their holy scriptures like Quran, Granth Sahib and Bible should be made compulsory in schools. Will the Modi government and the saffron leaders claiming to be the champions of India’s unity, accept the demand? Obviously not.

What is disgusting is that Haryana’s Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma has also now joined the ranks of the BJP leaders including some MPs, Union ministers, saffron robed sadhvis and sants who are using derogatory language against respected national leaders. Sharma recently made unbecoming comments against Nehru. Facing criticism he later expressed regrets. Reacting to Sharma’s comments, the state’s Health minister Anil Vij said “Nehru ache aadmi nahi thhe, lekin unko gaaali dena theek nahin.” The latest to join the ranks of such leaders is Modi’s minister Giriraj Singh who made racist comments against Sonia Gandhi. After all-round condemnation and cajoling by his party leaders, Giriraj expressed “regrets” for making such remarks.

Addressing a recent Christian meet held in Delhi, Modi had declared “My government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly.” During the poll campaign in Jammu and Kashmir in November, Modi had criticised the “father-daughter duo” for perpetuation of dynastic rule in the state. But later his party formed a coalition government with the dynastic duo. Similarly, the prime minister is not likely to sack one of his staunchest sycophants Giriraj for making derogatory remarks against Sonia and Rajiv.

It is a travesty of our present day politics that a leader holding country’s highest executive office adopts hypocritical attitude on sensitive political issues. The above mentioned ‘luminaries’ are not alone in making the derogatory comments against national leaders. Earlier the BJP’s favourit fellow-traveller Yoga guru Baba Ramdev had on April 3, 2014 said “Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are worse than Ravana, Saurpanakha and Poofna”. What was shocking that the otherwise sober senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had on May 18, 2014 likened Ramdev to Mahatma Gandhi and JP. The Khattar government has now made Yoga guru as its Yoga and Ayurveda brand ambassador. It is a travesty of just governance that the Modi government has provided Ramdev Z-category security even before a proper threat analysis by the Union Home Ministry.

Notwithstanding Khattar’s image of an amiable, good-intentioned gentleman and a devoted RSS pracharak, the functioning of his government has so far been lackluster. Thus far, by way of achievement, his government can only claim the dubious distinction of having reversed most of the decisions taken by his predecessor Bhupinder Singh Hooda thereby earning the title of being a U-turn government. Among the reversed decisions were lowering of the retirement age of government employees from 60 raised by the Hooda government, to 58 years, reducing old age pension from Rs.1,500 to Rs.1,200 p.m. and scrapping several ‘development’ schemes action on which Hooda government had ordered just before the election code of conduct came into operation.

On the political front, the Khattar government does not face any challenge from the divided opposition. The main opposition INLD suffers from the absence of its charismatic and mass-based ailing supremo Om Parkash Chautala who along with his eldest son Ajay are undergoing ten years imprisonment in JBT teacher recruitment scam. The Congress with the second largest number of MLAs is plagued with factionalism.

There are, however, subdued dissenting voices in the ruling party. If the erosion in the goodwill with which the Khattar government assumed power continues, one cannot rule out the possibility of the aspirants nursing the ambition to occupy chief minister’s chair becoming active. Ambitions never die.

One will have to wait for the form and severity the anti-incumbency against the Modi government takes to make any prediction about the future of the Khattar government which is presently on strong and unchallengeable footing. (IPA Service)