Bishnoi demands convening of Congress MLAs meeting in Haryana

Chandigarh, July 16: Expressing lack of faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress MP, Kuldip Bishnoi today demanded that a meeting of the party legislators should be called to solicit their views on the performance of the Haryana government.

''Congress president Sonia Gandhi can directly meet the MLAs to know their opinion, as middlemen often misguide the party High Command'', Mr Bishnoi, the younger son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, said while addressing a press conference here.

Mr Bhajan Lal had recently resigned as Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief after his supporters were, ''sidelined from the reorganised Pradesh Congress.

Describing Mr Hooda as an ''incompetent and inexperienced'' Chief Minister, he said that the Chief Minister had got enough time to prove his capabilities and abilities, but had unfortunately ''failed to live upto the aspirations of the people''.

The Congress image ''has taken a battering in the last one year or so, leaving party workers disgruntled and the common man unhappy with the present government'', he said while listing out a couple of lapses of the government including the Gohana casteist violence and the lathi charge on protesting industrial workers at Karnal and Gurgaon.

''The Congress party's graph had gone down and if assembly polls are held in Haryana today, we will have to go from village to village to beg for votes'', Mr Bishnoi said, while claiming that the state government's performance had gone from ''bad to worse'' over the period of time.

This was evident from the fact that in the Chief Ministers home district (Rohtak), the law and order situation had become a matter of concern, he claimed. ''People sitting in Delhi are refering to Haryana as a 'paradise for criminals' '', he added.

Mr Bishnoi, who had recently been served a show cause notice by the Congress high command for questioning the 'wisdom' of the state government in giving clearance to the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) venture, said he would be starting a 'Aam Aadmi Adhikar Andolan' (Struggle for common man's rights) from July 18. The agitation will be launched from Khandsa village in Gurgaon district to demand enhancement in land prices equal to the market value for the farmers whose land is being transfered to RIL-HSIDC (Haryana State Industries Development Corporation) for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project.

Mr Bishnoi, who has given his reply to the show cause notice, categorically stated that he was opposed to the RIL-HSIDC project and he would continue to fight for justice for the affected farmers, whose land was being acquired. ''I have conveyed my views on this project to the party high command'', he said while denying that he had adopted a confrontationist attitude because his father, Mr Bhajan Lal, was not made the Chief Minister.

When pointed out that the SEZ venture had been cleared by the state Cabinet of which his elder brother Chander Mohan, who is the Deputy Chief Minister, was a member, Mr Bishnoi reported that if the entire Cabinet was satisfied, then why did not anyone come forward to criticise my viewpoint''.

The Chief Minister has been taking credit for every developmental project executed in the state, but in the case of the RIL venture, he chooses to bring the Cabinet in picture,'' he added.

Stating that he was concerened about the interests of the people of the state, he said the RIL issue was not a ''family matter, but a political matter''. The state government had recently transfered 1700 acres of prime land in Gurgaon for the SEZ venture.

Ruling out formation of a separate political party, the MP from Bhiwani said '' the Congress party is in our blood and i am confident that Mrs Gandhi will hear our grievances''. '' Whatever the Congress is Haryana was today, it is because of the blood and sweat of Mr Bhajan Lal'', he added.

UNI