Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1

The first BJP government of Haryana is 100 days old and still struggling in the saddle. As the Manohar Lal Khattar government — wearing “saffron agenda” on its sleeve — repackages old wine in a new bottle and takes its first few steps towards “cleansing the corrupt system”, its manifesto commitments gather dust.

The government, keen to rid itself of the identity of a “U-turn government” on a mission to roll back decisions of the previous government, is essentially being “controlled” by a few bureaucrats who run the show.

The Chief Minister, seen as inexperienced in administration, still raw and inaccessible, is kept “cocooned” from “external influences” barring his “khula darbars” (grievance redress programme) and his morning meetings with the public. Whether it has been the urea crisis in an agrarian state or the accident that claimed 14 lives in Hisar at an unmanned level crossing, the Khattar government has failed to make its presence felt. The first month of the present government went by in reverse gear. Rolling back the retirement age of government employees from 60 to 58 years, raising the social security by Rs 200 per month against Rs 500 as approved by the Cabinet in the Congress regime, scrapping the Haryana School Teachers Selection Board, removing the chairman and members of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission and disbanding various boards were some of the “decisions” that dominated the first month.

While the Chief Minister regularly holds review meetings, nothing much has come from them. The government has already announced its decision to introduce Bhagwad Gita in the school curriculum though the much-publicised committee headed by RSS ideologue Dinanath on educational “reforms” is yet to be constituted nearly two months since it was announced. The CM’s window to redress public grievances — a new avtaar of the Harsamadhan programme of the previous regime — and police web portal “Har Samay” have been launched by the new government. Khattar says these two initiatives will bring the much-needed transparency and accountability into the system.

The government’s manifesto commitments remain largely “untouched” as the registry-on-your-doorstep scheme to minimise corruption at the tehsil level is yet to take off. The unemployment allowance seems forgotten even as the party has washed its hands off the commitment to implement the Swaminanthan report in the interest of the farmers.