Khattar weathers storm, unlikely to quit
We made the dera chief surrender as per the directions of the HC before the verdict and there was no chaos. The conflict erupted after he was held guilty, which shouldn’t have happened... We controlled the situation within twothree hours.
CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday gave clear indications that Manohar Lal Khattar will continue as the Haryana chief minister.
The “sack Khattar” chorus started again in the wake of Friday’s violence in Panchkula after a special CBI court convicted Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of rape, triggering widespread arson and unease within the BJP.
Initially, the BJP which was on the back-foot was struggling and avoiding any direct reference to Khattar government. The opposition led by Congress demanded imposition of President’s rule in Haryana and sacking of the Khattar government and accused both the state and the Centre of being “mute spectators” to arson and violence.
However, indications emerging from Delhi on Saturday points towards Khattar having weathered this storm even as the BJP government was found woefully lacking in dealing with the challenge the Dera followers posed to the state.
BJP sources say top party leadership was unlikely to act hurriedly against Khattar.
Any immediate action, they say, will send a wrong signal to the cadre and will hit the image of the party further.
The party leadership will like the situation to first “cool down” and decide fate of Khattar after the situation becomes normal.
As the BJP high command backed the government’s “decisive action” against the dera followers, known anti-Khattar forces within the BJP such as MPs Ashwani Minna and Rajkumar Saini also decided to keep mum and refrained from even speaking “off- the-record.”
The majority of the Haryana BJP MLAs and Lok Sabha MPs have a significant presence of the dera followers in their respective constituencies.
The fear of the BJP leaders is that they might lose dera voters support in post-rape verdict scenario.
Khattar has been under fire for most of his tenure from within due to what his detractors say “a weak leadership” and lack of control over the bureaucracy.
That Khattar has ducked the growing storm, at least for the time being, became clear after Haryana BJP in-charge Anil Jain on Saturday defended the state government and dismissed the reports that claimed that Khattar was summoned to Delhi.
Terming the mayhem erupted after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 15-year-old rape case as “unfortunate,” Jain said: “The incident is unfortunate. We are sorry for the loss of life and property, this should not have happened.”
Jain’s statement defending Khattar government came after attending a meeting with the party chief Amit Shah in which the law and order situation in the state was discussed.
Jain defended the Haryana government, saying that it is important to notice that the latter managed the crowd before the conviction of the dera chief and even after the unrest broke out, the situation was brought under control within two to three hours.
“But we have even made the dera chief surrender as per the directions of the high court, before the verdict and there was no chaos. The conflict erupted after Ram Rahim was held guilty, which shouldn’t have happened. It is also important to understand we controlled the situation within two-three hours,” he said.
He said that the situation is unfortunate, but the people who died were dera supporters and no report of locals being killed has been surfaced till now.