Troubled CM of a performing state

The Good Governance Index (GGI) for 2020-21, unveiled by the Govern­ment of India’s Department for Administrative Reform and Public Grievances a few days ago, is a useful new system for assessing governance in Indian states. The last one came out in 2019. Its ratings have credibility because there is no scope for tweaking data or discriminating between the BJP-ruled states and the others. Besides, it is based on the government’s own data. So if two non-BJP-ruled states — Kerala and Tamil Nadu — have bagged the top two positions in scores for good environmental protection practices, or the biggest incremental change (2019 to 2020-21) in good governance practices has been noted in Andhra Pradesh, which tops the index, the BJP should have no reason to question the scores.

The interesting thing is, Haryana features among the top five states in almost all sectors — whether it is agriculture, the creation of public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance (including ease of doing business), or social welfare and development. Admittedly this data extends only over two years and therefore cannot be used to measure governance and extrapolate that on election outcomes. But this much is clear: Haryana’s improvement in governance practices has been consistent, even if the BJP’s electoral performance in the state has not.

“When I became CM, my experience was zero. Now if anyone asks me, I will say I have one-year experience … I know everything and how to solve which problem. I know it very well,” said Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar when he completed a year in office. When the next Assembly election came around in 2019, the BJP failed to reach the majority mark of 46 members in the 90-member House and had to enter into a post-poll alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), headed by Dushyant Chautala. Between then and now, Gujarat and Karnataka have seen one change of chief minister, Uttarakhand has seen two, but Haryana is one of the few BJP-ruled states that has had the same chief minister, for seven years at that, though the party’s electoral record under him has been sub-par.

In the past two years, Haryana has borne the brunt of the farmers’ movement. (Barely three months ago, Mr Khattar had to cancel his trip to Sonipat after being advised that there might be a threat to his security from the large number of farmers who had gathered there to protest. He didn’t go.) The state has had to pass a law — presumably to address grievances that “outsiders” were flooding the state — ordering the private sector to reserve 75 per cent jobs below the Rs 30,000 gross monthly salary threshold. And limits on the rights of minorities to pray in public have been re-emphasised (there are no such curbs on rathyatras or Hindu religious processions like the kawarias passing through the state or jagarans in public parks).

All these moves tell the tale of a chief minister who is battling extreme political pressure although his record of governance is exceptional, as the GGI notes. The biggest problems Mr Khattar faces are from within.

Ten days ago, he expanded and reshuffled his council of ministers. He took away the urban local bodies department from his home minister, Anil Vij, and gave it to Kamal Gupta, a two-time Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the BJP representing Hisar. Housing for All, a department held by the chief minister himself, was also given to Mr Gupta (Haryana, by the way, has achieved 100 per cent of its Housing for All target. There must be a reason why the department still exists). Anyway, so angry was Mr Vij that he told local reporters the whole story: That the chief minister had, before the reshuffle, said he might have to take away the home department from him as well. “I then said, if he so wishes, he may take all portfolios … I said that I am willing to give up all my portfolios, why just one or two,” Mr Vij told reporters. He didn’t attend the cabinet expansion.

Tension between Mr Vij, a six-term BJP MLA, and the chief minister is not new. In 2020, Mr Khattar divested Mr Vij of the Criminal Investigation Department, without which there is little import or power left in the home ministry of a state. Then the chief minister and his home minister were locked in a very public stand-off over the tenure of the director general of police, whom Mr Khattar wanted to retain and  Mr Vij wanted to replace. In 2015, less than three months after the BJP came to power in Haryana for the first time on its own, Mr Vij, who then held health, sports and youth affairs, had taken a swipe at the chief minister on Twitter, saying, “Thank you chief minister for taking a keen interest in my departments. I’m relaxed.” This was in response to Mr Khattar launching a number of programmes and schemes relating to Mr Vij’s departments.

Alliance partner Dushyant Chautala has been facing challenges of his own after the farmers’ agitation. But he hasn’t exactly been a pillar of strength for the chief minister, either. Elections in Haryana are still some time away. But troubled waters threaten to flood the chief minister.