My analysis of Haryana verdict
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
SAMAJ WEEKLY, UK-
Haryana election results have again highlighted the serious crisis in the Congress Party and the limitations of the regional kshatraps. Congress once ruled through regional kshatraps but that was the time when the central leadership was powerful
and could threaten states if they don’t follow the basic ideological traits of the organization. That was Indira Gandhi who learnt to take India’s diversity along with her. Congress was the natural choice for not only the Brahmins but other powerful upper castes as well as Muslim minorities and Dalits. Slowly, party tried to follow the Hindutva line but lost disastrously to BJP whenever it tried to out do them. The problem is things are not going Congress way due to various reasons and the biggest is the role of state leaders considered as ‘kshatraps’ who are unable to look beyond their families and jaatis. None of these khsatraps could be termed as inclusive. Some of them definitely went overboard on their ‘inclusiveness’ that they lost base of their own communities like Harish Rawat in Uttarakhand. But people like Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath and now Bhupinder Singh Hooda are simply over hyped leaders who gained everything from the Congress but could not go beyond their own family interests and therefore damaged it at the time when the people were looking to Congress Party for the alternative to the ruling BJP. Don’t ignore the fact that Siddharamaiyya was defeated in Karnataka despite his good work by the caste identities as both Vokalingas and Lingayats never wanted an OBC of the marginalized sections lead the state. D K Shivakumar continue to challenge the chief minister and powerful Vokalinga lobby is desperate to have him chief minister likes the Jats of north India. Both the Jats as well as Vokalingas-Lingayats are actually powerful landed savarna castes but over the years the Bahujan narratives setters for the sake of their vote politics put them in OBC category. The same Bahujan narrative setters are unable to respond or keep silent when violence against Dalits occurs in those states dominate by the Bahujan politics. BSP chief Ms Mayawati herself said that though Dalit votes shifted to other parties, the same did not happen as Jats did not vote to Dalit candidates and that is a reality. The Bahujan narrative setters need to look beyond their jaati interest and see the diverse contradictions among various communities at the ground level. There is no one community which can be blamed as being ‘jaatiwadi’ or casteists as almost everyone comes under that category. The only thing is we all are looking someone below us and are in awe of someone above us as Baba Saheb explained. Unfortunately, communities and leaders who need to stitch this broadbased participatory alliance with diverse communities are unable to go beyond their jaati interests and trapped in their constructed image of a particular community leader.
We may discuss about EVMs and other administrative issues. They are serious issues and Election Commission; political parties and the highest court have failed collectively to assure us as why shouldn’t the number of vote polled be equal to that of the VVPAT slips. Why has there been a huge mismatch on it and if that actually is, then why have the objections not been taken seriously by any of the agency or body accountable for free and fair polls.
It is important to understand that narrative making is important but it does not really work if you don’t have the cadres and leaders representing those communities at the ground. You won’t get cadres and leaders of the communities if there is a narrative of ‘dominance’ of one particular community in the party organization and structure. In Haryana, Congress went into the fray with over confidence that it is returning to power after 10 years of anti-incumbency and incompetent government led by the non jats. It wanted to exploit the rising Jat sentiment of returning to the power but ignored the vital factor that it was only possible if the Jat leadership was ready to play the role of a facilitator ensuring the participation of all those communities particularly Dalits who were feeling threatened. Dalits who constitute about 21% of the total Haryana population can’t imagine of having a chief minister of their own because 27% Jats would not like them to be so. The first decade rule under Bhupinder Singh Hooda has brought the Jat Dalit hostilities into lime light where Hooda had no interest to work as conscious keeper of the constitution and provide justice to Dalits. I was witness to various movements led by Dalits for justice including Bhagana and Mirchpur where Dalits became victims of Jat hegemony in Haryana and Hooda did nothing. In fact, Congress High command that time could not pursue Hooda to act against Jats who were the accused on both the cases. Hence, promoting Hooda at the time when Haryana was witnessing huge anti Jat incumbency was nothing but playing in the hands of BJP. Even if the party wanted to ensure that it remain in command with powerful Jat votes, it was important to play an inclusive game. The humiliation given to Ms Selja, an extremely loyal leader from Dalit community of Haryana did not go down well with the Dalits in the state. If even after so many years, a woman of substance who had devoted her life and energy to build the party, Selja cant expect to lead the party or be in its platform as leader of the party, then it reflect the highhandedness of Hooda family. BJP used this insult for their own campaign and BSP too raised the issue. The anti-Dalit characteristic of Hooda as well as dominant Jats in the region has not diluted and whether it is a reality or narrative but it has won the game so far. Congress party must understand that their leaders were made to believe that ‘Kisan’, Pahalwan and ‘Jawan’ were against BJP so cutting across the community line there is a broad anger against the government. Frankly speaking, the Kisan, Pahalwan and Jawan insidiously only cater the Jat voters of Haryana. Congress did not bother to reach out Dalits and Rajput votes. Through out 2024, even when we all know that there was Rajput desperation to break out of BJP and ally with all other groups who were sympathetic to its issues, Congress leadership refuses to accept the fact that they too exist. Similarly, despite Rahul Gandhi’s loud claims of Social Justice, no collective effort was made in Haryana to reach out Dalits. The last moment entry of Ashok Tanwar could not bring back the Dalit votes in the party and reason is clear. Congress must understand that political parties are not social justice movement. A movement can run on one particular agenda targeting one sections but politics has to be inclusive and ensure engagement with all communities. Right now, India’s poor and marginalized want share in power structure and that happens through their political representation at different level. While job reservation is an important issue, parties will have to prepare them to take a categorical stand on the issues. BJP succeeded because it has open stand on various issues unlike Congress which is unable to take a stand. The Dalit votes in Haryana was not one sided. The Jatav-Chamar votes who are over 50% of the total Dalit votes in Haryana actually went along with BSP because Congress’s no stand on sub categorization. The Balmikis who are about 30% of total voters among the Dalits, voted mostly for BJP because it supported the demand for categorization. So the Dalit votes whether pro or anti, went along with other parties and not to Congress because of its refusal to take a stand.
At a public meeting Yogendra Yadav said that an effort is being made against to convert the elections as Jat verses non Jats and he said BJP is expert in doing so. The party did the same in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where it pitched other communities against Yadavas. BJP might have been doing things as per its political strategy but in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and Congress are doing the same which is blaming Rajputs or Thakurs for every thing wrong there. Yogendra Yadav has not written a single sentence that the same Thakurs actually voted against BJP in Uttar Pradesh and ensured the defeat of many of the Hindutva candidates but today opposition parties are targeting Rajputs in order to take Yogi Adityanath head on. It might boomerang as the community which is nowhere in judiciary, media, industry and bureaucracy in comparison to other powerful communities of Uttar Pradesh. Haryana’s Jat verses non Jat narrative would not have succeeded if Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others had the humility of extending their outreach to other marginalized communities particularly the Dalits in Haryana.
There are about 8% Yadav votes in Haryana and many areas adjoining Uttar Pradesh impact that. A combine campaign with Akhilesh Yadav would have worked here but the local leadership of the party refused to ally with AAP or Samajwadi Party. Many time, we know well that an ally party does not have a base in the state but we keep them in good humour, give them one or two seats so that the message go to the communities about the intent of your party. An alliance with Samajwadi Party and a joint campaign would have served the purpose but Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not interested in that. It would have served better than allying with AAP. Congress AAP alliance failed because of over ambitious project of AAP and BJP wanted to use it. They work on different directions and multiple fronts to defeat the ‘enemy’ so Ram Rahim of Dera Sacha Sauda got released on parole and Arvind Kejriwal getting bail from the highest court during the same period can’t be ruled out for foiling the Congress chances in the state.
That apart, it is also visible that a number of candidates who were not given ticket from the Congress party contested as independent candidate and got extremely handsome share of votes caused the defeat of the party. Though this happen in every party, it is also a reality that Hooda dominated everything as he was sure he would be in power and he wanted to ensure that after the victory, he become chief minister without any interference of the party High Command. Bhupinder Hooda and his dream to rule Haryana has finished but it has given Congress a severe blow. Congress party now need to rebuilt the party and bring all stakeholders together. Bring the issues that compliments and even when Rahul Gandhi raise Caste Census and reservation issue, it is time, it is done without offending anyone. There is a big difference between political parties and civil society or intellectuals as political party will have to cater all while intellectuals and civil society leaders/influencers are mostly agenda driven and might be speaking a thing out of conviction but far away from ground realities. Political parties cant behave as charitable organisations or civil society watchdog group. Congress also needed to be careful of the ‘loyal’ youtubers who had no other agenda then getting likes as well as resources. The party got carried away with the agenda settlers on social media. They remain far away from the ground realities and were just talking of their ‘man ki baat’. Congress needs to become party of all and not of one jaati or a couple of jaatis but for that it will have to weave a narrative where every stakeholder feel save and committed. For that to happen, the party need to rebuilt the party organisations in all the states with new blood.
Though Congress’s defeat in Haryana is shocking for the party, it may be a boon for Rahul Gandhi and others. Bhupinder Singh Hooda would have behaved similarly like other leaders such as Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath or Amrinder Singh etc once in power. He never followed party line when Dalits were being attacked in Haryana. Congress High Command is helpless because regional kshatraps can damage party if not benefit it and therefore it was unable to act against them but Hooda now join the company of Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath, Bhupesh Bhagel and Harish Rawat. Time has come for the party to move on and build up the party by bringing young leaders from different communities that reflect the ground realities of the state.
All this is not to discount the unfair means which the ruling party adopted, the disappointing role of Election Commission, the issues of fairness and EVMs. They remain vital and important for the health of democracy but we also know the fact that despite that parties have won elections. If the party and many others feel that EVMs have been manipulated and hacked then they must approach the court in all seriousness. Administrative issues of fair play are extremely important but still I feel that Congress committed blunders and that can not be ignored.
Therefore, Congress would do well, to do a caste census of the party structure so that it understands what ails the party, who are the leaders dominant in the party structure yet unable to fetch votes to the party. Get a complete figure of communities in the organisations and link it with the state figures. A complete overhaul of Congress party is not possible without a ‘jaati-janganana’ or ‘caste census’ of the entire party structure. Rahul Gandhi who is advocating the caste census and social justice issues everywhere need to start cleaning his home first as his social justice agenda will remain unimplementable if there are no takers of that in the party. Will the party ever listen?
