Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and his Congress predecessor and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda are locked in a vicious war of words ahead of the upcoming Baroda assembly bypolls in the state.
A day after the Chief Minister Manohar Lal took at dig at the former CM, reminding him of the results of the Lok Sabha polls, Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday retorted, talking about his performance in Garhi-Sampla Kiloi assembly segment and CM’s performance in Karnal.
Hooda advised the Chief Minister to leave the past and talk on the present and the future.Baroda assembly seat in Sonepat district fell vacant in April following the demise of sitting Congress MLA Krishan Hooda. No poll date has been announced as yet.
“I have no doubt that the Congress will win by a huge margin in this byelection. I have already dared the Chief Minister Khattar to become the BJP candidate and I am willing to contest from the Congress in Baroda,” Hooda said while talking to the mediapersons here.
The Leader of Opposition said that Chief Minister starts talking about the past when they are asked questions about the present.
This is because his government has achieved nothing in the last six years and has no vision for the future.“I ask the Chief Minister who was the candidate who won with the highest margin in the last Vidhan Sabha elections and which constituency had the lowest voting and highest NOTA votes. The answer to this question should settle the issue,” Hooda added.
He also lashed out at the State Government saying that the people of Haryana are suffering from 5Cc.
“While the whole world is suffering from Coronavirus and China, we have been hit hard by crime, corruption and casteism. Therefore, the public will teach a tough lesson to the BJP in the Baroda bypolls,” Hooda said.
Responding to Hooda’s challenge to contest the bypoll against him, Chief Minister Manohar Lal had on Monday said, “Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda had lost the Lok Sabha elections. Hooda’s son reached the Rajya Sabha riding on the back of his party’s MLAs. Baroda is a part of the Sonepat parliamentary seat and the BJP-JJP alliance will win comfortably.”
Coming down heavily on the State Government on the issue of corruption, the Leader of opposition Hooda said that the governance in the state has come down to zero with no development and only scams.
Haryana which was the number one state in the country in growth and development, has now become infamous for its scams and rising crime graph.
“There is a multi-crores of rice scam in the state which follows a long list of scams in paddy procurement, liquor, mining, recruitment, paper leaks, scholarships, electricity meters and drug purchases which have come to light besides the Illegal mining from Yamuna to Aravali. It looks like the BJP-JJP alliance is running a Government of scams. The State Government is neither conducting any investigation to identify culprits nor is it taking any action against anyone,” he said.
The former Chief Minister also alleged that none other than the criminals are happy with the BJP Government because the Government is picking people's pockets even in difficult times like the Coronavirus pandemic.
“The government did not provide any relief to any section, despite its massive increase in taxes, Coronavirus relief fund and taking huge loans.
Farmers, laborers, traders and employees were looking at the government to give them support but no help came as taxes kept going up. Prices of diesel and petrol were increased,” he said. On the decision taken by the Haryana Cabinet to bring in an ordinance to provide 75 percent jobs to Haryana youth in private sector in the state, Hooda said, “The truth is that such a provision has been in force since 2011 in Haryana and the government now says this announcement of BJP government will only apply to new industries.
We want to ask the government why this has not been put into force in the last six years?”The youth has suffered because investments in the state have completely collapsed and there are hardly any new jobs that are coming up. The youth are also questioning if the law would be implemented at all, he added.
Replying to a question on the issue of a freeze in DA for government employees, Hooda said this is only a beginning.
“They have made the announcement for the rest of the year and I think this is going to be extended to 2021 and as long as this government is in place, allowances will keep getting reduced.
The BJP government is anti-farmer and anti-employee and this is why they sacked 1983 PTIs while they should have fought their case with greater effort in the Court,” he said.“The government should have found a way to save their jobs as we did during our government too when 1800 policemen, hired during the INLD government, were sacked due to orders and we made them jail wardens.
Similarly, despite a scam in the recruitment of 3,206 JBT teachers during the INLD government, they were not sacked as we believed that the government has to create jobs, not destroy them,” he added.