Haryana CM's pink rally gears up

Gohana, Nov 11:: Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's " gulabi fauj" (army of supporters with pink headgear and chunris), was out in full force on Sunday at his rally. The fauj has become synonymous with Congress rallies in the state since he came to power.

According to Congress workers, pink turbans were first introduced by Bansi Lal but this was adopted whole-heartedly by party managers after Hooda came to power in 2005. "The colour stands out. Before Hooda came to power, other political parties had claimed other colours. Indian National Lok Dal had green turbans while Bhajan Lal followers wore yellow turbans and Bahujan Samaj Party has its blue," a party insider said, reports Times of India.

Addressing the rally without any top central leaders in attendance, Hooda tried to come across as a people's chief minister as he defended schemes to benefit people. "Let me tell those opposition leaders who were criticizing me for squandering the state exchequer. Main to loota raha hoon apne logon ke liye. Loot to nahin raha (I am giving to my own people, I am not looting them)," he said.

Hooda tried to sound tough as he announced a law to make government officers "accountable". He said bureaucrats won't be allowed to stall things. "I have decided to put them on a leash by enacting a 'jawabdehi kanoon' (accountability legislation). Following its implementation, every government official will have to complete the job within a fixed time frame and those found indulging in dereliction of duties would be taken to task," he said.

He also scrapped the contract system for low level employees such as security personnel and sweepers in municipal bodies.

Taking a dig at BJP's search for an alliance partner in Haryana, he said BJP is in a dilemma with whom to form the alliance and which way to go. It is only the people who have to decide whether this is a "gathbandhan" or "thagbandhan" as the alliance would be formed on no matching interests of two parties but only to grab power by all means.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)