clash-of-clans-in-haryana

Indian democracy is turning clannish. Politics is predominantly dominated by a few families in every party and state across the country. Even in a party like the Bharatiya Janata Party, widely believed to be not ‘family run/dominated’ familial ties do play a role in getting party nominations and other positions. 

 

Haryana may be a relatively small state in terms of population and area, but it has influenced the country's politics to a great degree. The culture of ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ (defections) started from here, eventually becoming a dubiously important and integral feature of Indian democracy.

 

The state is well known by its three ‘Lals’, who influenced and dominated not only state politics but also national politics. They include Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal. All of them served as the Chief Ministers of the state. By and large, they were each others’ contemporaries also.

 

Bansi Lal was known for his proximity to the former Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi and was also known to have been one of the prominent influences on her during the infamous emergency.

 

Then there was Devi Lal, an iconic Jat leader who consolidated the anti-Rajiv movement with Vishwanath Partap Singh as its face. When Rajiv lost and the Janata Dal government came into power, Devi Lal reportedly declined to become the Prime Minister and offered the job to VP Singh, which he accepted.

 

Bhajan Lal was another prominent ‘Lal’ who left a lasting impact on Haryana politics. Originally, he was with the Janta Party. It was he who led a group of legislators to defect from the party to join the Congress. Thus started the “culture” of ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’. 

 

None of the three ‘Lals’ is alive or around right now. But their legacy and successors are very much there playing a prominent role and seeking prominent places and positions. 

 

And it is not the “clans” of three ‘Lals’ alone, that are playing a prominent role in state politics, there are other, maybe lesser known but equally influential, clans as well. Most of the prominent leaders in Haryana right now, particularly in the Congress, are second or third and even fourth-generation descendants, having inherited politics by birth, rather than having toiled or laboured for it.

 

Devi Lal

 

Devi Lal’s two sons, Om Prakash Chautala and Ranjit Singh are very much around. While Chautala, a former Haryana Chief Minister is not very active now, two of his sons, Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala are daggers drawn at each other. The ‘sibling rivalry’ runs in the blood. Ranjit Singh has always been opposed to Chautala.

 

Currently in the BJP, he was earlier with the Congress, a party that Devi Lal’s clan can’t see eye to eye with.

 

While Ajay, has been debarred from fighting elections due to conviction and ten years’ imprisonment in a corruption case along with his father Om Prakash Chautala, his two sons, Duhsyant Chautala and Digviay Chautala are very much active. They separated from the Indian National Lok Dal, after their uncle

 

Abhay took total control of the party. Senior Chautala, their grandfather sided with Abhay, the younger of the two.

 

Dushyant and Digvijay formed the Jannayak Janata Party and outscored the INLD in the 2019 assembly elections. They formed a post-poll alliance with the BJP, with Dushyant becoming the Deputy Chief Minister. The alliance has since broken. The BJP and the JJP went separate ways after Manohar Lal Khattar resigned as the Chief Minister.

 

Both the INLD headed by Abhay Chautala and JJP headed by Dushyant are fighting the forthcoming assembly elections separately. Both the parties stake their claim mainly on Jat votes.

 

Bansi Lal

 

Bansi Lal had two sons, Surinder Singh and Ranbir Singh Mahendra. It was Surinder Singh who inherited their father’s legacy. Ranbir was mostly involved and active with the cricket management in the country. He served as the president of the BCCI in 2004 and 2005. He dabbled in politics for a while and became an MLA for one term.

 

Surinder Singh became an MP twice and later a minister in the Congress government. He was killed in a tragic plane crash while being the minister along with the business magnate and founder of the famed Jindal Group of Industries Om Prakash Jindal. Jindal was also a minister at that time in Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government in Haryana. 

 

Now, Bansi Lal’s legacy is being carried forward by his daughter-in-law Kiran Chaudhary (Surinder Singh’s wife) and granddaughter, Shruti Chaudhary. While Kiran is a sitting MLA, Shruti is a former MP. Both of them recently joined the BJP.

 

Bhajan Lal

 

Bhajan Lal has two sons. Chander Mohan and Kuldeep Bishnoi. Chander Mohan remains in the Congress. In 2005 under an agreement, when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was made the Chief Minister, the party veteran and strongman Bhajan Lal was compensated with Chander Mohan being appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister. 

 

Kuldeep Bishnoi has, however, charted his own course. Right now he is with the BJP. Earlier he formed his own party Haryana Janhit Party, which met a premature death as most of the elected MLAs defected in 2009, when Bhupinder Hooda fell short of majority for a second term. His wife Renuka Bishnoi also became an MLA from the family bastion Adampur in Hisar district of Haryana. 

 

It is Kuldeep Bishnoi who claims to have inherited his father’s political legacy.

 

The other clans in Haryana

 

Besides the three ‘Lals’, there are at least four prominent other clans which have dominated and continue to dominate Haryana politics. These clans represent Sir Chhotu Ram, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, Chaudhary Dalbir Singh and Shamsher Singh Surjewala. 

 

Sir Chhotu Ram 

 

Sir Chhotu Ram was a legendary farm leader who worked for the welfare of farmers during the British Raj. He is widely respected not only by the farming community in the current day Punjab and Haryana, but across the border in Pakistan as well.

 

Chaudhary Birender Singh, former union minister is his grandson (his daughter’s son). Birender mostly remained in the Congress and joined the BJP in 2014 and became a minister in the first term of the Modi government. 

 

His son, Brijendra Singh, a former IAS officer, was elected from Hisar parliamentary constituency in 2019 on a BJP ticket. He represents the fourth generation of Sir Chhottu Ram. 

 

Both Birender and Brijender resigned from the BJP before the parliamentary elections and joined the Congress. 

 

 

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

 

Bhupinder Singh Hooda is again a second-generation politician, who served as Haryana Chief Minister from 2005 to 2014. Before that, he was an MP. Although belonging to a powerful and influential political family already, he rose to prominence when he defeated Chaudhary Devi Lal from the Rohtak parliamentary constituency in 1991, 1996 and 1998. 

 

Hooda is the son of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, a veteran Congress leader, who served as a minister in the united Punjab and then in the Haryana government. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly.

 

Hooda’s son, Deepender Singh Hooda is currently the MP from Rohtak. He is the third-generation politician in the family. 

 

Kumari Selja 

 

Kumari Selja is currently the MP from Sirsa. She has been a former union minister and president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress also. She is the daughter of Chaudhary Dalbir Singh, a prominent Dalit Congress leader who was a four-time MP. 

 

Kumari Selja is an important and influential Congress leader in Haryana. She is a strong contender for the post of the Chief Minister. Being a woman and a Dalit, she is also considered to be very close to the first family in the party, the Gandhis. 

 

Randeep Singh Surjewala 

 

Randeep Singh Surjewala is yet another leader inheriting a strong political legacy. A former president of the Indian Youth Congress, he is currently the party’s national general secretary and is considered close to the Gandhi family. He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. 

 

He is the son of another prominent Congress leader, the late Shamsher Singh Surjewala, a former Haryana Minister, and MP and president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress. 

 

Late Surjewala always remained loyal to the Gandhi family, even when it had remained marginalized during the ‘reign’ of Narsimha Rao. 

 

Randeep Surjewala, rose to prominence after defeating Om Prakash Chautala, a former Chief Minister twice from Narwana assembly segment.

 

No matter who emerges as the final winner in the assembly elections scheduled later this year, the results will not be without the “clannish” influences.