Gurugram: At a time when Kuldeep Bishnoi is already sulking because of his apparent sidelining by the BJP, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s comments directed at his late father Bhajan Lal have further injured not just the former MP but also the Bishnoi community.
The Bishnoi community is said to have considerable sway in the Hisar and Sirsa Lok Sabha constituencies of Haryana and in at least four constituencies of Rajasthan.
Addressing an election meeting Wednesday at Kaimri village under Hisar seat in support of BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Ranjit Singh Chautala, Khattar, without taking any names, narrated an anecdote which is believed to refer to Bhajan Lal and was very popular among his detractors when he was Haryana CM from 1979 to 1986 and then again from 1991 to 1996. It is not known whether the anecdote is true or not.
“I am telling you an old incident though I will not name the political leader involved. A man from this area went to his leader in Chandigarh and complained that the village patwari (accountant) had taken Rs 100 bribe for issuing him a fard (copy of land records in village). The leader asked how much the man had spent to come to Chandigarh. The man said he had come from Hisar district and would spend Rs 200 on a round trip to Chandigarh and also waste two working days,” Khattar said.
He added: “The leader chided the man and said that when he had got his work done by paying a lesser amount (as bribe), why did he waste Rs 200 to come to Chandigarh,” Khattar told the crowd, adding that such used to be the mindset of leaders in Haryana.
He further said that though he had not named the leader involved in this anecdote, he would like those in the crowd who had heard this story to raise their hands.
Several hands, not only in the crowd but also among the political leaders sitting on the dais, went up. “Itne logon ne sunn rakha hai! Bolo baat sach thi ke nahin? (So many people have heard this. Was it true or not?)” Khattar asked.
The former CM apparently tried to salvage the situation the next day by telling people at a rally in Fatehabad that he had enjoyed good relations with Bhajan Lal and that his words the previous day had been “wrongly projected” on social media.
“I enjoyed very good relations with Chaudhary Bhajan Lal. We used to sit together and gossip for hours. I just revealed in my speech yesterday how we used to make plans for eradicating corruption. Today, if we have been able to curb corruption, it is because of Bhajan Lal who was pained about it,” Khattar said.
The Bishnoi community is nonetheless upset and Bishnoi himself has remained unresponsive to the media ever since the BJP announced its candidates for Haryana’s 10 Lok Sabha seats last month.
Bishnoi, a former Hisar MP, had defected to the BJP from the Congress in August 2022. He was hoping for a BJP ticket from Hisar this year but it was instead given to state minister Chautala.
ThePrint reached Bishnoi for comment via calls, but did not get a response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
However, a source close to him said that Khattar’s comments had disappointed not just Bishnoi’s family but incensed the Bishnoi community across Haryana and Rajasthan.
“For members of the Bishnoi community, Chaudhary Bhajan Lalji is next to Guru Jambheshwar, also called Jambhoji, who founded the Bishnoi sect in 1485 AD by laying down 29 principles (the word Bishnoi comes from bees meaning 20 and noi meaning nine) for his followers. The community impacts election results in Hisar and Sirsa and at least four Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. The manner in which Khattar spoke disparagingly about our revered late leader has sent a wrong message to the community,” said the source.
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‘Interesting if Congress fields Chander Mohan’
Asked why Bishnoi had not been participating in Chautala’s poll campaign, the source said the former MP wanted to wait and see if the BJP leadership would rehabilitate him in some manner.
He said that as far as the Bishnoi community in Hisar was concerned, they were waiting for the Congress to announce its candidates.
“If the Congress fields Chander Mohan (Bishnoi’s brother) from Hisar, the contest is going to be very interesting, mark my words,” said the source.
Bishnoi and his son Bhavya Bishnoi, MLA from Adampur assembly seat, have so far kept a distance from Chautala’s campaign. While the former is yet to turn up for the BJP candidate’s campaign, Bhavya was present only on 28 March when CM Nayab Singh Saini and Khattar inaugurated Chautala’s election office in Hisar.
Before this, Bishnoi had posted a video on X on 25 March asking his supporters to vote for the BJP candidate. He also said he had been receiving calls from his supporters who were dejected apparently at the denial of ticket to him.
भारतीय जनता पार्टी के सभी प्रत्याशियों को बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएँ। pic.twitter.com/TbumsvBPDW
— Kuldeep Bishnoi (Modi Ka Parivar) (@bishnoikuldeep) March 25, 2024
Bishnoi and Bhajan Lal have won the Hisar seat on one occasion each previously while Bishnoi and Bhavya contested the seat unsuccessfully in 2014 and 2019, respectively.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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