Haryana: Why is hate politics taking root?

There may be more than a year left for the Haryana Assembly polls but the rush to prepare the ground for polarisation of communities so that the ruling BJP can win a majority on its own in the October, 2024 polls, seems to have begun in earnest.

In the last polls held in 2019, the BJP could win only 40 seats in the 90-member Assembly and had to strike a pact with the JPP led by Dushyant Chautala to muster the numbers to form a government.

Former RSS pracharak Manohar Lal Khattar was the pick of the saffronists to head the new government, which has through the past four years seen too little ups and too many downs due to differences between the two coalition partners, BJP and JJP.

The ongoing bout of violence in the state bordering Delhi gives one a feeling that the BJP senses the ground slipping from under its feet with the Khattar government’s not-so-bright performance constantly under critical scrutiny.

And more so because of Haryana’s proximity to Delhi and the fact that the state’s population has intimate links with the national capital for employment and is also culturally symbiotic with the Delhiite.

There are also reports that the BJP’s ally, JJP is none too happy with happenings in the state and may even consider fighting the coming polls on its own rather than remain in the coalition fold.

The little state is no doubt a big catch for any political party – for it is a bustling industrial hub producing 67 per cent of passenger cars in the country, 60 per cent of motorcycles, 50 per cent of tractors and an equal proportion of refrigerators.

The Haryanvi, along with the Punjabi, builds up the granary of the country with 70-90 per cent of wheat production coming from these two states. With such hectic industrial activity, it was but natural for the state to draw a huge number of migrant workers from places like Bengal.

In fact, a recent report put the number of migrants in Haryana at 13 lakhs, which is about 5 per cent of its population.

So does the Haryanvi sense a danger from the migrant to his job and economic prospects?

Or is the violence more of an attempt at splitting communities and creating a sense of hatred so that the divisive lines are clearly laid out when voting day is here?

Going by the uncanny fact that migrant workers of the Muslim community have been largely targeted by right-wing activists, it is clear that an attempt is on to create animosity between adherents of the two faiths – a line pursued by the saffron brigade with remarkable success in many states, though it failed miserably in Karnataka in the recent Assembly polls.

Many of those who led the rioting mobs onto the streets, burnt vehicles and vandalised shops, are pro-Hindutva activists who had faced flak in the past for their inflammatory actions.

The question many would ask is whether the targeting of property and other assets of those belonging to the minorities, had the silent support of the BJP government in the state?

These and many other issues including the BJP-led NDA government’s intriguing silence on the violence in Manipur, where almost 150 lives have been lost, are sure to trouble voters as India heads into the last eight months before the all-important Parliament polls of 2024.

Is the nation’s multi-hued fabric being torn apart by radical ideologues? So what will happen to the dream of a liberal and progressive land where people of all faiths live and thrive in harmony?

It was a dream nurtured by our founding father and will continue to guide us amid sinister attempts to wreck the very foundations of our democracy.