Amitabh Shukla | Kurukshetra
This is the land
of Mahabharata
But this time, in the Assembly
polls, the battle is not between right or wrong but a fight for what the
Haryanvis call chaudhar, or simply put, supremacy. “The Assembly polls are a
fight for the might of the moustache, not issues,” said Jat septuagenarian
Hakam Singh, who lives in Pipli.
Talk to him and other residents
and they refer to the battle Royale in the Lok Sabha polls where Industrial
tycoon Naveen Jindal of the Congress, embroiled in the coal scam, lost to the
BJP candidate due to intense campaign by media baron Subhash Chandra.
This time, Kurukshetra has
shifted to Hissar where Naveen’s mother Savitri Jindal, perhaps the richest
woman in India ,
is contesting. Though Chandra is not contesting, he has made available all his
resources open for the defeat of the Congress nominee.
The reason is simple. Chandra was
dragged into a controversy during the UPA regime when editors of his TV channel
were accused by Jindal of wrongdoing.
“Chandra is a Haryanvi. He has
not forgotten the slight. He ensured the defeat of Naveen in Kurukshetra five
months ago and now the strategy is to get his mother defeated,” said INLD
leader Nafe Singh in Kalai Majra village. Singh said this was a classic case
for the battle of c which is widespread in Haryana.
“People do not forget their
slight easily,” he added. There are several constituencies in the State where
there is more at stake than merely the seats. It is the chaudhar of the leaders
for which they are fighting and for the families of the three Lals— Devi Lal,
Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal — the fight is for their legacy and is being seen as a
test of their vote-catching ability long after they died.
In Dabwali, symbolically Naina
Singh, the wife of jailed INLD leader Ajay Singh Chautala is in fray, but locals say it is the Chaudhar (supremacy)
of her husband which is at stake. In Uchana Kalan, sitting Hissar MP Dushyant
Chautala is contesting but if he loses, it will be his grandfather Om Prakash
Chautala whose prestige will be at stake. All of them are repeatedly using the
name of former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal to further their cause.
Former Chief Minister Bhajan
Lal’s two sons - Kuldeep Bishnoi (Adampur) and Chander Mohan (Nalwa) and
daughter-in-law Renuka Bishnoi (Hansi) are in the fray and they are invoking
the name of the tallest non-Jat leader to seek votes. The architect of modern
Haryana Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Chowdhury (Tosham) and son Ranbir
Singh Mahendra (Badhra) are in the fray to cash in on his name even though his
granddaughter Shruti Chaudhary lost the Lok Sabha polls
In Uchana Kalan, apart from
Dushyant, Premlata Singh, the wife of Chaudhary Birender Singh who switched
over from the Congress to the BJP is in the fray. Birender is seeking votes
saying if his wife wins, his stature in the BJP would grow. “It boils down to
the fight of moustache,” said, Ashwani Sharma, who runs a small coaching
institute in Shahabad Markanda. (October
13, 2014 )
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