CHANDIGARHI: In the ongoing war of attrition among the political bigwigs of Haryana Congress, yet another front has been opened by a former member of par! ment, Hardwari Lal, by ring salvos at both the Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal, and his detractor duo, Shamsher Singh Surjewala and Birender Singh.

While lamenting the fate of “Haryana in the matter of political leadership,” Hardwari Lal, in a statement here said that “as Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal leaves a great deal to be desired.” He also asked the “Congress workers and Jat peasantry” to take Surjewala and Birender Singh “for what they really are.”

Hardwari Lal, while asking the {two ministers to resign from the Cabinet and not complain like children over the change of their Portfolios, asked what the fate of the state would have been “if either of the two was accepted by the Congress High Command as his alternative.”

Reminding the duo about his statement against Bhajan Lal a few months ago, Hardwari Lal said that at that time both of them had asked for his head for his statement Birender Singh, the then president of HPCC, had actually suspended him from the Congress for his anti-Bhajan Lal statement. Hardwari Lal said that Birender Singh “was seeking to please Bhajan Lal at that time.”

He said both Surjewala and Birender Singh were ministers in the Bhajan Lals last Cabinet for many long years. “How come that they have now suddenly identified him as an autocrat? They must explain the change in their estimate of the man.”

Hardwari Lal further asked “Why did they accept the PCC delegates, who were recently asked to choose the state chief, as representatives of Congress workers and why do they now see distinction between them and the real Congress workers? And who indeed are the workers of their conception, if sot these delegates?”

He asked “Is the duos stand that though the delegates actually showed their preference for one or both of them and not for Dharampal Singh Malik, the central observers presented a distorted Picture to the Prime Minister?” He asked “Would Bhajan Lal have continued to be an angelic Chief Minister if he had backed either of them for the state Congress president ship and not Malik? Criticizing the decision of the Speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in the case of Khairati Lal admitting him in the Congress legislature party, Hardwari Lal said that the original statement of Khairati Lal, following his defection from the BJP to the CLP, was basis enough for the Speaker to declare him as disqualified under the anti-defection law,

Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1992