‘Need to rise above petty politics to strengthen the party’
CHANDIGARH: Even as the bad blood in the Haryana Congress seems to spread with every passing day, party’s state president Ashok Tanwar has “advised” the MLAs belonging to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp to “rise above the petty politics and work together to strengthen the party’’. He was in Chandigarh on Friday. Excerpts from an interview with HT’s Rajesh Moudgil:
Jai Tirath Dahiya, Congress MLA from Rai, has written to Congress president Rahul Gandhi requesting him to appoint former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in your place. There have been several other developments of this kind. Your comments ?
I have been repeatedly telling these leaders, it is not the right thing to do at a time when people keenly want to uproot BJP from Haryana for its anti-people functioning. We have a bigger role and we must, thus, remain and work united to fight for people’s rights. I want to tell them to rise above their individual interests and petty politics and focus on the bigger role.
Have you complained to party high command against such party workers ?
No, but every senior leader in the party knows who is
who in Haryana Congress and who is doing what. And I am not the type who keeps cribbing about such issues.
“Mein party leadership ko aise muddon se pareshan
nahin karana chahta” (I do not want to bother the party leadership with such issues). We now have Rahul Gandhi, a young and dynamic leader, as our party chief and it is time to support him to strengthen the party.
You had lodged a police complaint against some Hooda supporters who allegedly indulged in a violent clash injuring you and your supporters in New Delhi in October, 2016. What is the status on that case?
The case is still going on.
It is said that all the recently elected officeholders of the Congress’ student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), Haryana, have the backing of Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, who is also son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. What does it reflect ?
The NSUI is the party’s frontal organisation and has great responsibilities and I, thus exhort its elected leaders to work for the party. Nonetheless, there were a plethora of complaints about the fairness in the election as the voters’ number in some places such as Rohtak was much higher than some other places where it was negligible. There ought to be level-playing in elections.
With the elections being just about two years ahead, how do you plan to build the party?
From January 1, 2018, we are going to hold many programmes to make people of Haryana aware about the anti-people functioning of the ruling BJP government in the state. Following a public rally in Fatehabad, I will take out a cycle rally in all the 90 assembly segments of the state. There are many other programmes as well. And I will again request all the party leaders in Haryana to rise above the individual interests and petty politics to work to strengthen the party.