Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh
The 10-year sentence awarded to
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay
Chautala for corruption is set to trigger a political upheaval in Haryana and
change the existing political equations.
While supporters of the jailed
leader claim that there would be a “political tsunami” in the state which will
blow away the Congress, the ruling party and the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)-Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) combine find little merit in the statements
saying that the days of INLD in the state are over.
With the sentence, both O P
Chautala and his son Ajay stand debarred from contesting either the 2014 Lok
Sabha elections or the Assembly elections later in the same year. Unless a
superior court discharges them and pronounces them “not guilty” before the
elections, the political career of the 78-year old senior Chautala is as good
as finished. His other son Abhey does not have the political mettle to
consolidate the primarily Jat support base of the INLD, the way his father and
brother and before that Chaudhary Devi Lal did effectively. Moreover, Abhey
himself is embroiled in an ongoing Disproportionate Assets case, being probed
by the CBI.
Congress has already started the
damage control exercise and also an attempt to dispel the feeling amongst a
section of the people of the state that the CBI was used by the party to finish
off Chautala politically. The reaction from the Congress camp has been rather
muted. “No one is above law. The CBI has acted as per the directions of the
Supreme Court after a private complaint and not on the directions of the
Congress,” AICC General Secretary in-charge of the state, BK Hariprasad said.
State chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda merely said, “Law has taken its course”.
He said the enquiry was initiated during the reign of NDA and there are options
in law for appeal.
Abhey Chautala, however, alleged
that there was “a conspiracy between CBI and Congress” and launched a scathing
attack on the ruling party. “Congress has always misused the CBI. We have the
examples of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Jagan Mohan Reddy…Congress and the
CBI has conspired to defame us. We will move the superior courts,” he said.
The judgement and the 10-year
jail term to the Chautala duo has obviously come as a shot in the arm for the
fledgling BJP-HJC alliance in the state. In the run-up to the 2009 Assembly
polls, BJP had repeatedly spurned offers from the INLD to enter into an
alliance with the party for the polls and fought separately. It helped Congress
to return to power. BJP subsequently entered into an alliance with the Kuldeep
Bishnoi led HJC to cement a non-Jat political platform, something which Bhajan
Lal did successfully for over two decades.
Now with the opposition space
practically vacated by INLD by default in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha and
Assembly polls, BJP-HJC alliance has got the necessary ammunition to take on
the Hooda government. The two have already decided on seat adjustments for the
next Lok Sabha elections (BJP- 8, HJC-2) and the Assembly elections (45 each)
and an aggressive campaign to increase support base is now on the cards.
“The arrest and conviction is a
positive step for democracy in the country. No one is above law,” BJP in-charge
of Haryana, Dr Harsh Vardhan said. He, however, said that there are still
hundreds of corrupt politicians in the country and the Congress government
should also ensure that their own ministers and allies go to jail. The BJP
leader said that it was the duty of the government to prove that it was not
misusing CBI for political purposes as is the belief of a large section of
people. Asked whether the party felt elated as the opposition space has been
vacated by default, Harsh Vardhan claimed, “After the formation of the BJP-HJC
alliance, the support base has increased tremendously as people are fed up with
the successive corrupt regimes in Haryana”.
An elated BJP’s alliance partner
and HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi said the punishment will affect the politics of
the country. “No one will now afford to indulge in corruption,” he said, adding
that the fate of INLD leaders would be before them.
As there is hardly any line of
leadership left in the INLD with Abhey Chautala also under CBI scanner, party sources
said that they would appeal against the order immediately and use all legal
channels so that the party supremo is absolved of all charges before the next
elections. (January 23, 2012)
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