NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Wasteland Development Ram Singh joined the BJP amidst vociferous protests from sections of the party’s Haryana unit. “Aya RamGaya Ram rajniti murdabad; dal badlon ko basharnikalo (stop the politics of coming and go ing; throw out those who change their party),” shouted a crowd of agitated BJP workers at the party office on Ashoka Road as party president L.K. Advani formally welcomed the former Army Colonel. Making an effort to keep a straight’ face despite the sloganeering filtering through the closed door of the conference room, Singh said that although he had filed his papers as a Congress nominee from Mahendragarh last week, he had now decided to join BJP. ‘The immediate provocation, he explained, was that the Congress high command had decided to let Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal choose the nominees for the nine assembly seats in his parliamentary constituency, “I felt I would only go down if I stand with his team,” Singh defended himself, This was, of course, the immediate provocation, But, Singh continued, he was also disgusted with the sugar scam, the security scam, the hawala scam and all the other scams associated with the Narasimha Rao Government. “The Congress politician has become a laughing stock in the eyes of the common man.” he lamented. Advani said “it was a good sign™ that Singh had decided to join the BJP despite having filed nomination papers as a Congress candidate last week, “We would have welcomed a person like Col. Ram Singh at any time,” he maintained.
Colonel Rao Ram Singh sent in his letter of resignation from the Union Council of Ministers, to the Prime Minister, earlier in the evening. He stated that he was resigning in protest against “conspiracies being indulged in by Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.
Singh has stated in his resignation letter to Rao; “My esteemed colleagues Pr. Charanji Lal, Avatar Bhadana and Bhupender Hooda and myself have been trying to get a meeting with you for the last five days, to once again implore you to put a brake on the destructive actions of Bhajan Lal.”
Coming down heavily on Bhajan Lal, Singh has also stated that the Chief Minister has continued un checked to hijack the party and he thinks that he can “homiletic any one however, senior ho may be, Such a Situation is clearly intolerable and “I am unable to swallow the goings on and the conspiracies being indulged in by Bhajan Lal,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Haryana Congress party president Dharampal Singh Malik stated here last week, that Col Ram ‘Singh joining the BJP was s caso of rank opportunism.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1996
