The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and crime go hand-in-hand, believes former Haryana chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Fiercely vocal about his displeasure for the political party, Hooda is unequivocally convinced that governance under the BJP leads to lawlessness.
The party puts law and order behind multiple locks and hands the keys over to the miscreants, he said here on Saturday.
“Crime is so out of control in the state of Haryana that firing and murders have become a part of people’s daily routine. The murder of a businessman in Jind’s Kharkaramji village has once again made it clear that there is no BJP 'raj' [rule] but 'gunda raj' [rule of goons] in Haryana,” he said.
Talking about the posting of cartoons on social media by the BJP party to claim achievements that the Congress also boasts of, Hooda said his party believes in walking the talk.
“During the Congress government, miscreants were clearly warned to either stop crime or leave Haryana. We did not only say this, but also implemented it. The Congress government had completely wiped out gangsters, mafia and miscreants from the state. But the BJP government is making cartoons and making empty dialogues. If it has to copy, it should copy the policies of the Congress and eliminate crime from the state like the Congress government did,” he said.
“Unfortunately”, Hooda lamented, “law and order and people’s security have never been the priority of the BJP. The party has been entrusted with the responsibility of securing the public, but it is instead engaged in event management and remains intoxicated with arrogance.”
Hooda accused the Haryana government of promoting crime, directly or indirectly. “This is why sometimes news comes from Rohtak that miscreants have fired at a liquor shop and then they post a video on Instagram. Sometimes, news comes from Hansi that a ransom of ₹50 lakh was demanded from a businessman. Then, there are reports of firing at toll plazas and fertilizer shops, or of a liquor contractor being shot dead in Kurukshetra. From Pinjore to Palwal, Mahendragarh to Yamunanagar, newspapers are filled with such news,” he said.
The former two-time chief minister said that the BJP brings hooliganism along when it comes to power. “Earlier, from 2000 till 2005, when the BJP and INLD were in power, there was similar hooliganism and mafia rule in Haryana. Incidents of firing, ransom and robbery were usual. Once again, this is being repeated in Haryana. This government has pushed the state into mafia rule and gang war,” he claimed.
Pointing to the Social Progress Index (SPI) report of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, Hooda said Haryana is listed as the “most unsafe state in the country” in the list.
“The NCRB report also testifies to this. In 2022, 1,020 murders took place in the state. That means three murders were being committed every day. During 2022, 1,786 rape incidents took place in Haryana. This means 4-5 rapes took place every day,” he stated.
Crimes against women too have reached an all-time high, Hooda said, with 16,743 cases coming to light within a year.
“46 cases were registered every day. With a crime rate of 118.7, Haryana ranks No. 1 in the whole country. In 2014-15, the annual cases of crimes against women were around 9,000, which have almost doubled today. There has been a 100 per cent increase in them. More than a hundred incidents of theft, robbery, dacoity, extortions, and kidnapping occur every day in the state,” he said.
Hooda said the current government in Haryana had created a situation that makes life unsafe for not only the common people, but also the police, political leaders, and the MLAs, including BJP’s own.
“Businessmen are fleeing Haryana due to fear of ransom killings, extortions, and hooliganism. It is because of the fear of criminals that this time, the people did not even place tenders for half the liquor contracts,” Hooda said.
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