Decency has rarely been an election promise in India. But as the Congress hopes to highlight this quality in its campaign for the October 15 assembly polls in Haryana.
Sharafat aur vikas ‒ decency and development ‒ is the slogan displayed on posters and banners all over the state, accompanied by an image of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It may seem amusing and a little baffling, but the slogan intends to remind voters of the high-handedness that allegedly marked the tenure of Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala when he was chief minister between 1999 and 2005.
Chautala had been accused of intimidating his political opponents. The situation deteriorated so much by the end of his tenure that state Congress president Bhajan Lal found himself waging a political war against the INLD chief’s “terror tactics”.
The decency and development slogan underlines the fact that for Congress, the INLD remains no lesser a threat than the Bharatiya Janata Party, even though the saffron party won seven out of the state's ten Lok Sabha seats only four months ago.
Chautala is a member of the Jat community, whose members form about a quarter of Haryana's population and have dominated the state's politics since it was formed in 1966. Congress insiders feel that the only way Hooda, who is also a Jat, can woo back voters is by reviving memories of Chautala alleged misdeeds.
It isn't clear whether this will actually persuade Jats to vote for the Congress. But the party hopes to take advantage of the fact that both Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala are currently in jail for accepting bribes in exchange for giving teachers jobs in the state.
Hooting at Hooda
In addition to invoking memories of Chautala, the Congress also aims to shame BJP workers for hooting at Hooda during an event in Kaithal last month that was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Ever since, the Congress leader has used every opportunity to depict that incident as an “insult” to the people of Haryana. “What happened at Kaithal you all know," ” he said in rally in Panipat recently. "Though tit-for-tat is against our culture, we will definitely avenge what happened there in a different way. I request you to give them a befitting reply using your power of ballot in the assembly polls."
The sharafat strategy may perhaps be the best gloss Hooda can put upon the failure of his own government as he braving a strong wave of anti-incumbency. But for now, the slogan is getting the Congress a decent amount of attention.
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Sharafat aur vikas ‒ decency and development ‒ is the slogan displayed on posters and banners all over the state, accompanied by an image of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It may seem amusing and a little baffling, but the slogan intends to remind voters of the high-handedness that allegedly marked the tenure of Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala when he was chief minister between 1999 and 2005.
Chautala had been accused of intimidating his political opponents. The situation deteriorated so much by the end of his tenure that state Congress president Bhajan Lal found himself waging a political war against the INLD chief’s “terror tactics”.
The decency and development slogan underlines the fact that for Congress, the INLD remains no lesser a threat than the Bharatiya Janata Party, even though the saffron party won seven out of the state's ten Lok Sabha seats only four months ago.
Chautala is a member of the Jat community, whose members form about a quarter of Haryana's population and have dominated the state's politics since it was formed in 1966. Congress insiders feel that the only way Hooda, who is also a Jat, can woo back voters is by reviving memories of Chautala alleged misdeeds.
It isn't clear whether this will actually persuade Jats to vote for the Congress. But the party hopes to take advantage of the fact that both Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala are currently in jail for accepting bribes in exchange for giving teachers jobs in the state.
Hooting at Hooda
In addition to invoking memories of Chautala, the Congress also aims to shame BJP workers for hooting at Hooda during an event in Kaithal last month that was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Ever since, the Congress leader has used every opportunity to depict that incident as an “insult” to the people of Haryana. “What happened at Kaithal you all know," ” he said in rally in Panipat recently. "Though tit-for-tat is against our culture, we will definitely avenge what happened there in a different way. I request you to give them a befitting reply using your power of ballot in the assembly polls."
The sharafat strategy may perhaps be the best gloss Hooda can put upon the failure of his own government as he braving a strong wave of anti-incumbency. But for now, the slogan is getting the Congress a decent amount of attention.
