‘We will bring back happy days’
BHUPINDER SINGH HOODA, former chief minister of Haryana, tells Shikha Shalini that the BJP government in Haryana has run the state to the ground and will be rejected by the people in the next election.
After the last elections, a non-political person was asked to helm Haryana, ignoring the social realities of Haryana politics. What has been the impact of this on the politics of the state?
There was rapid development in the state during the period I was Chief Minister. When I demitted office in 2014, Haryana was on top of the list of states showing rapid growth, with high per capita income and per capita investment.
But today Haryana has regressed badly. The state has suffered financially and its debt has increased. The total debt in the 2013 budget was ~600 billion but in Haryana’s last budget, the total debt was ~16 trillion. The government has borrowed so much but there is no development in the state. The current government specialises in event management and publicity.
I can give you the details of work I did in the field of education, the power sector etc. But the current government has nothing to its credit. We started the power project in Yamunanagar. The country’s second National Institute of Design opened in Kurukshetra. The Kalpana Chawla Medical College was opened in Karnal during my tenure. The only medical college for women in India was in Delhi but a second one was opened in Khanpur. We have built the country's first defence university in Gurugram. An AIIMS and a National Cancer Institute was established in Jhajjar. In Rohtak, we set up an IIM and started work on a University of Visual and Performing Arts. Two power plants established in Jhajjar. Expansion of Metro from Delhi to Haryana and Rapid Metro was started in Gurugram during my period….
This government, on the other hand, has done no work on the expansion of the metro or rail line in the last four years. No university or educational institution has been opened. After completing four years, the Haryana government has said total investment has amounted to around ~80 billion. They said the Kalpana Chawla Medical College would become a medical university. But till today, not a single brick has been laid there. Rather its name has been changed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay. This is their achievement. Farmers are on the brink of devastation. They are not even getting the MSP (Minimum Support Price) here. This government’s job is simply to organise meetings and rallies without any purpose.