Over 70,000 got jobs under Khattar govt: Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala

With just a week to go for the Haryana elections, Bharatiya Janata Party state President Subhash Barala is campaigning intensively along with other leaders. He speaks to Nitin Kumar about the work done by the party in the state, the main contenders, the party’s inclusive agenda, and how the steps taken by the central government will help the party in Haryana. Edited excerpts:

Under your leadership, the party has won all the elections held since 2014. This includes the mayoral elections, Jind by-poll, and the 2019 Lok Sabha election. What will be your strategy for the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections? Do you see a repeat of the previous elections?

Continuous victories since 2014 is certainly a big achievement for the BJP, given that it came to power in the state for the first time. The prime reason for this accomplishment is the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and Manohar Lal Khattar at the state level. The government worked with transparency, honesty, and accountability.

Not only the government but every single party worker helped us spread schemes like UJALA, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. We are taking these accomplishments to the people.

We are fighting this election on our state and central government’s policies of social welfare, employment, farmer welfare and investment.

The high unemployment rate is a key poll issue this time. What will be the party’s strategy to tackle this?
 

During Om Prakash Chautala’s regime from 1999 to 2005 and Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government from 2005 to 2014, there were about 8,000-12,000 jobs created in each tenure. In several of these recruitments, the matter went to the court, or people were forced to hit the streets. Against this, our government gave jobs to over 70,000 people in the state.

Apart from this, direct or indirect employment was given to more than 500,000 people under our Saksham Yojana. And loans were provided to the unemployed youth under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana. We have provided the highest number of jobs in the last five years. The Opposition is just trying to deceive people.

The state’s total debt has risen from Rs 76,263 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1.64 trillion in 2017-18.
 

You talk about debt, but see our government's Budget, it has increased exponentially every year after 2014. It has reached Rs 1.32 trillion for 2019-20. Second, we put an end to fund leakages. Rajiv Gandhi said if one rupee is sent from Delhi, only 15 paise reaches the village. We stopped that. The previous government left a debt of Rs 38,000 crore to the power sector that our government paid. The government has had to make some adjustments with various departments, but the Opposition is portraying a false picture. Funds have been better utilised under Khattar.

The Opposition is accusing the government of giving jobs to the youth from other states. What is your take on this?

They are simply misleading people because they don’t have any other issue or achievement to talk about. Our youth is educated and they know that not even a single candidate can get a job above the other state’s quota. Our government is not like the previous ones, which were giving jobs on their whims. 
 

What will be the BJP’s strategy for the 11 Assembly segments where the Congress and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) took lead during the Lok Sabha election, which includes Mewat- and Jat-dominated constituencies such as Sapla, Jhajjar, Beri, etc?

These 11 seats and the remaining 79 have 19,441 booths. We have a list of every booth and that has a list of 10 pages and we have made panna pramukhs for every page. Let alone the 11 Vidhan Sabha seats, with this strategy, we will win every panna.

The Opposition is accusing the BJP of fighting the state election on national issues such as Jammu and Kashmir and National Register of Citizens (NRC), as they have no work to show in the state.

The regionalism that prevailed during their rules has ended. They did caste politics in the state, which we ended. In previous regimes, jobs were given to relatives or in exchange for money. They even botched the BPL cards by distributing them to their relatives and associates; farmers were treated unfairly — they were not given fair prices for their crops. During their rule, even transfers in government jobs were done on the whims of their leaders. In the southern Haryana, which is under NCR, they acquired lands under sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act at throwaway prices. The BJP has brought in transparency in the system.

Be it the abrogation of Article 370 or 35A, various positive steps were initiated by the BJP under the leadership of the PM. This long-pending demand to do away with “ek desh mein do vidhan, do pradhan aur do nishan (two constitutions, two prime ministers and two flags in one country)” was fulfilled by our government. This dream was shared by Dr B R Ambedkar, but Jawaharlal Nehru went against the suggestions and imposed Article 370 and 35A. We have fought against this from the days of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Now that the Article has been abrogated, they’re asking us not to raise the issue.

Haryana’s population is just 2 per cent of the country’s, but we comprise 10 per cent of the national defence forces — the highest in the country.

We are a nationalist state: our brothers protect our country at the border and our farmers provide food for the nation. Now, if the BJP has fulfilled these dreams, why should we not discuss our achievements? Now, they have realised that people are with the BJP, as we won all 10 Lok Sabha seats, and defeated their star candidate Randeep Surjewala in the Jind by-poll. We won the first direct mayoral elections. They are questioning us as they are restless, but people won’t fall into their trap.

But the Congress also accuses the BJP of doing caste politics in Haryana.

These people knew that if the BJP forms the government in Haryana, it would be very difficult to remove it, like in other states. So, they conspired against our party, it didn’t work and the conspirators are behind the bars. Everyone in Haryana knew what they were trying to achieve, so the people of Haryana, panchayats, khap panchayats, NGO groups and other social organisations rejected their politics and they approved and believed in our CM’s slogan of ‘Haryana ek Haryanvi ek’.

Instances of Hindu-Muslim conflict in the state have made national headlines. Do you think the situation is any better than before?

People understand that the BJP takes everyone along. Some of these incidents, like the ones in Badshapur and Gurugram were fake. The incidents were given a communal colour to spread a false propaganda against the BJP. But the people have understood their strategy now.

In fact, in Mewat, an independent MLA Rahish Khan was with the BJP for five years. Muslim leaders have now seen that the BJP is working for all-inclusive development. It was only because of this that leaders like Zakir Hussain and Nasir Ahmed decided to join the BJP.

We have provided employment, roads, transportation, education institutes in Mewat. And we are very confident that the BJP will win all the 3 seats there.

The BJP had said Robert Vadra and state Congress leaders who helped him will be put behind bars. But that has not happened.

The BJP and our government will not take any step, which will be seen as a revenge. The law is taking its own course, and the administrative machinery is doing its job. When the inquiry is complete, the department concerned would take the legal route against every culprit. In fact, there are other names apart from Robert Vadra, which are not much talked about. People would get to know about them too.

The BJP has dropped 12 sitting MLAs, including two ministers. What could be the reason behind this?

I don’t think there is a need to discuss all the reasons why the tickets have been denied to the sitting MLAs.

The Opposition is accusing the state BJP leadership of various corruption cases like the roadways and mining. What’s your take on this?

If evidence is found against anybody, law will take its course and nobody will be spared, irrespective of which party they are from.

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