Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar's quantum of solace

He appears to be reprieved by party high command after the latest violence. How long will it last?

When I became the 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.

That was in October 2015. Now, two years later, you could be forgiven for looking incredulous and asking: ‘really?’

The outbreak of violence following the verdict against the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda cult, Ram Rahim, which resulted in some 40 deaths, is the third Haryana has seen since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. The first was the militant resistance when police attempted to arrest self-styled “godman” Rampal after he failed to appear in court 43 times on two criminal cases registered against him. When police officials reached his Satlok Ashram in Hisar to arrest him, Rampal’s followers barricaded themselves inside the 12-acre premises. Power and water supply to the ashram were cut off after authorities realised he was not in a mood to surrender peacefully. After a two-week stand-off, he was finally arrested in November 2014.

You could say — although you shouldn’t because law and order is a state subject and the permanent bureaucracy is supposed to be on top of the situation —that this debacle was the result of Khattar’s inexperience. 

But what followed was utterly humiliating for the chief minister, the police and the administration. This was the resurgence of the Jat agitation in 2016 —Jats, the most dominant, wealthy and influential community in Haryana, asking for reservations in education and in jobs. Sensing that if Jats were given reservation some other communities would have to sacrifice their share of the reservation pie so that total reservation stayed below the 50 per cent limit mandated by the Supreme Court in 2008, equally vocal communities like the Sainis began speaking out. Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini made a series of inflammatory speeches, inciting Jats, promising retribution and calling them names. But Saini was asked to keep quiet only after the protest turned violent.

As patterns go, it was almost identical to the Ram Rahim-related debacle. The Jat agitation in Haryana began almost a week before it turned violent. It started in Rohtak (hardly surprising as B S Hooda, former chief minister and Congress leader, is Haryana’s Jat No 1, in the absence of O P Chautala, currently in jail) but within days it spread to Sonipat, Jhajhar and Bhiwani. It was the same syndrome — Jats cutting down trees and using them to block highways cutting off Haryana from Delhi. As fuel, milk and other supplies began running out, the state was in the grips of a war. 

Khattar, clearly not one for believing prevention is better than cure, acted when a blockade was already in place and police opened fire on protesters. Jats were having none of that. They retaliated ferociously and burnt down everything in sight. Khattar’s cabinet mimicked what was going on in the state — it was virtually Jats versus non-Jats in cabinet meetings that struggled to decide how to end it. Finally, he ended up capitulating — after Haryana’s reputation for administration had been dragged in the mud comprehensively.

Where did the failure lie? Both in the choice of bureaucrats and his style of governance priorities. 

The two most successful chief ministers of Haryana — Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal, both of whom served three terms — couldn’t stand each other. But they had one thing in common — a ruthless streak in their dealings with bureaucrats. They empowered their officers but tolerated no slippages. 

Under Khattar, cases are rampant of officers – armed IPS officers—running away to hide when the mobs attacked. And no action was taken against them after the Jat agitation. Some action has been taken in this latest round of violence but we have to see if it sticks.

After his first year in office, asked to name the Khattar government’s singular achievement, former state bureaucrats were left scratching their heads. “The search for the Saraswati?” said one hopefully, referring to the third in the trinity of holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna which is believed to have run dry. Khattar has allocated Rs 50 crore to find the river that is supposed to be somewhere in Yamunanagar. “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao,” said another, about the campaign to educate girls and prevent pre-natal sex determination. But that is a scheme launched by the Union government. 

Transfers and postings used to be an industry in Haryana, to the extent that Khattar announced ending this would be one of his priorities. He announced a transfer policy  — but power and education are the only two sectors the policy covers.  Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections, 12 MLAs had come to Delhi to petition the high command that they were finding Khattar’s control of the bureaucracy and fellow MLAs shaky. This despite the fact that in the 90-member Assembly, BJP has 47 MLAs and has the support of five other MLAs (four Independents and one from BSP). Party President Amit Shah sent them packing at that time. But now they will again demand that action be taken against Khattar for incompetence — otherwise, they will have to pay the price come Assembly elections in 2019.

Khattar has come to Delhi and returned to Haryana with some sort of reassurance. The question is — will that be enough to last the remainder of the term?