Chandigarh: A day after quitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joining Congress, Jat leader and Hisar member of parliament Brijendra Singh said his decision to leave the party was not a knee-jerk reaction, but it was building up for quite some time.
Explaining this, he told The Wire that the socio-political dynamics of his constituency or his state revolves widely around Kisan (farmer), jawan (solider), and khiladi (sportsperson). But the interest of all these sections was widely overlooked under the BJP regime, he said.
“In fact the way the current government mishandled their concerns was even more unfortunate,” said Brijendra while referring to farmers’ protest, row over agniveer scheme curtailing service years in armed forces and Haryana’s female wrestlers’ protest against former wresting federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over harassment allegations.
Belonging to the Jat icon Chhotu Ram family, his father Birender Singh too is hailed as an important Jat leader of the state. He remained in Congress for decades before joining BJP in 2014 and later served as Union minister in the first Modi cabinet between 2014-19.
As his father took retirement from electoral politics in the last general election, Bijendra Singh stepped into his father’s shoes after leaving his two-decades-long stint in Indian Administrative Services (IAS) and won parliamentary election from Hisar that his father once represented.
But according to him, ideologically speaking he always felt like a misfit in the BJP since the beginning. Then things started building up against the section of voters his family represented for long, which he could not overlook due to his family legacy and the trust of the people.
Politically too, he said they had problems within BJP. He said they conveyed many times their unhappiness over the party’s alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (another Jat-oriented political party under the extended Chautala family) but the party stayed with it.
He said his father during a rally in their home town Jind last October had clearly stated that if this alliance continued, they would part ways.
“The section of BJP leaders were also against the alliance but nobody was ready to take action against it and then they had to take a call somehow,” he added.
On why they were against the BJP post-assembly polls alliance (which came into existence after the last assembly polls), he replied that how it can be tolerable that the party which won seats by targeting BJP is now sharing power.
“Ask BJP leaders on the ground, they were not happy with the alliance either. It is just that we spoke against it publically and they could not, ” he added.
He hit out at JJP saying that their claims that they represent farmers’ interests are hollow. They only enjoyed power in alliance, he added.
On why he believed the BJP was insensitive to issues of farmers, youth and wrestlers during their tenure, he replied that when a government enjoys a majority (in Parliament), they tend to believe that whatever they are doing is fine.
For instance, what was the need to bring an ordinance for three farm bills in 2020 which otherwise had wider consequences on the agri market in India, he said.
“Things would have been different if these laws – later withdrawn by BJP after year year-long farm protest outside Delhi – were first discussed with thread-bare clarity on the floor of the parliament before its implementation. At least no one would have complained that all stakeholders were not involved in decision-making,” said Birendra Singh.
He said such a one-sided decision only created suspicion in the minds of people and that is why the entire farming community in north Indian states were up against the BJP and forced it to withdraw these bills.
Sharing his views on Haryana police’s latest action to halt another Delhi march by farmers, he said the action was condemnable. It appeared as if the Punjab and Haryana borders turned into national borders. He said the sensitivity of the BJP-JJP government in Haryana was missing especially when farmer issues needed open discussions.
Brijendra said agrarian distress was on the rise ever since the Indian economy adopted liberalised economic policies in the 90s. “Our family has been advocating for long for the wide-scale agrarian reforms which ensure stable income and value addition to farmers earning along with protection to their land and cattle, ” he added.
He said agriculture issues have structural problems and the Congress party as Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said would address it deeply if he comes to power.
Congress hopes to consolidate the Jat vote bank.
Sources said Brijendra’s father Birender Singh too might join Congress in a few days. He had been one of the tallest jat leaders of Congress for decades before he joined the BJP in 2014.
Birender Singh accompanied his son when he joined Congress on Sunday, March 10 in the presence of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi.
Congress hoped that father-son due might help them consolidate the important Jat vote in Haryana ahead of the Lok Sabha election whose polity is sharply divided between Jats and non-Jats.
This faultline has sharpened further ever since the emergence of the BJP in Haryana post in the Modi era due to the consolidation of non-Jats in their favour.
Political analyst Kushal Pal Singh told The Wire that it is being speculated that Brijendra Singh left BJP over his fear of getting replaced by Kuldeep Bishnoi from Hisar.
But according to him, more than BJP’s loss, his joining will benefit Congress, given that his family still holds influence in certain pockets of Haryana, which remained loyal to them whether they were in Congress or BJP.
This might help Congress to consolidate its Jat vote bank and perform better from drastic defeat during the last polls when it lost all 10 seats in Haryana, he added.
In the 2019 general elections, Congress lost a few seats like Rohtak with small margins. Things might turn different for the party in this election due to changing political equations in the state, including Congress’s alliance with AAP, he said.
As per the poll pact, Congress is fighting nine seats while AAP has been given one seat.
