With hardly any mentionable achievement during its six months of governance, the Khattar government is becoming a victim of negatives more than a beneficiary of positives. The biggest negative point which may cost it dearly is the gradually fading away of the Modi charisma which has shrunken the party’s popular base. Besides, the ministry lacks collective functioning with almost every minister acting as an independent entity.

The party can, however, draw some consolation from the fact that the anti-incumbency sentiment has not yet gained roots.

Besides these negatives, the ruling party will have to face the onslaughts of the opposition. It will, however, have the consolation that the state’s main opposition INLD is currently caught in the cobwebs of its past misdoings. Its supremo Om Parkash Chautala and elder son Ajay are undergoing 10-year imprisonment in the JBT Teachers recruitment scam case. The Supreme Court on May 15 dismissed Ajay’s appeal against the 10-year jail term. What should prove more worrying for the Chautalas is special CBI court’s starting of day-to-day hearings of the nine-year-old disproportionate assets case against the father and his sons Ajay and Abhey.

The Khattar government will, however, have to face the onslaughts of a combative Congress from May 31 when Bhupinder Singh Hooda launches his mass contact drive against the government’s “negative performance”. The BJP can, however, draw some consolation from the fact of the state Congress being faction-ridden. But this would not blunt Hooda’s campaign as his rival faction led by PCC president Ashok Tanwar and CLP leader Kiran Chaudhri have marginal support base whereas Hooda not only has a mass popular base but also enjoys the backing of 14 out of the party’s 15 legislators.

The second development is saffronising of education which is being given a bizarre turn. The credit for the BJP’s dubiously partisan plan should go specially to the state’s Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma whose ambition to become the chief minister after the party won assembly elections remained unfulfilled due to prime minister Narender Modi’s surprising decision to nominate the RSS parcharak, first-time MLA Manohar Lal Khatta for chief ministerial office.

It did not take long for Sharma to announce that the government had decided to saffronise education. The first step was to make teaching Gita compulsory in schools. Notwithstanding its universal values, Gita is viewed by India’s minorities as a Hindu scripture. Haryana’s decision was bound to evoke demand from the plural India’s minorities for making teaching of their scriptures also compulsory. It soon happened when Kashmir’s moderate Hurriyat Conference raised the demand to make Islamic studies (Islamiyat) part of school curriculum in private and government-run educational institutions in Jammu and Kashmir.

That the standard of education in Haryana has touched its lowest level is indicated by this year’s worst state board examination results when 58.7 per cent students of Class 10 and 46.04 per cent of Class 12 failed in their examination. Mr. Sharma held the previous Hooda-led Congress government responsible for the prevailing dismal state of education forgetting that the situation is the cumulative outcome of the previous governments failures to introduce reforms in education. The BJP was a coalition partner of some of these governments including Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party and Chautala’s INLD.

Mr. Sharma believes that “yoga and moral education will better results”. He also discussed the matter with Baba Ramdev whom Haryana government has made its yoga and Ayurveda brand ambassador.

One is surprised by the government’s decision to associate Ramdev with its plan for introducing moral education despite the spate of high-decibel controversies generated by many of his actions and utterances in the past.

First the yoga guru was charged with exploiting the ancient Indian knowledge of yoga to mint money. His usual sermons of observing public morality were exposed during the UPA rule when, to evade arrest by the police, he wearing a woman’s attire fled from a stage in Delhi’s Ram Lila maidan. Earlier, the Baba had also announced to float a political party but had to abandon the idea apparently under the BJP pressure.

The shocking side of his high morality was exposed when he virtually abused some senior national leaders. Addressing the Chandigarh media on April 3, 2014 during BJP candidate’s Kirron Kher’s election canmpaign, Ramdev said “Jawarlal Nehru was the biggest khalknayak (villain) and I don’t think he will be in heaven”. He also described “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul as worse than Ravana, Sarupnakha and Pootna.”

The worst part of the story is that when on May 18 the senior BJP leader Arum Jaitley (now Finance Minister) said that “the role played by Ramdev in awakening the voters (during Lok Sabha elections) is similar to the struggles undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan”. Ramdev was later given Z category security.

The ‘yogi’, however, must be given credit of being a skilled strategist and tactician for building his own image. The latest example is the letter Ramdev, who never tires of praising Modi, wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh two days before the Padma awards were to be presented on 26 January 2015 saying that “as a ‘sanyasi’ I should refrain from receiving rewards and honours”. A PTI report, however, said that “the ministry in an RTI response to activist Subhash Agrawal referred him to web site which had lists of people considered for Padma awards and those shortlisted for them but it did not have name of yoga guru Ramdev”. One is reminded of a Punjabi saying “Hathth na paunchay thoo kaudi”. Our modern day ‘sanyasis’ have mastered the art of hypocrisy.

Ruling politicians with whom some self-styled Babas and godmen establish close proximity must not forget what Napoleon Bonaparte had said: “He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.” (IPA Service)