Opposition alliance ‘makeshift grouping’, not a challenge for BJP: Manohar Lal Khattar

NEW DELHI: Opposition bloc INDIA is not a challenge for the BJP, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday as he described the alliance as a ”makeshift grouping”.

In an interaction with journalists here, the BJP leader claimed that the Haryana government controlled the recent communal violence in the state within hours.

On his party’s alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, he said a decision will be taken by the BJP’s central leadership in Delhi.

Commenting on the INDIA alliance, he said, ”There is no challenge, nor is there any fear.” ”They (Opposition) are scared of Modi ji, so they are using the name INDIA to make an emotional pitch. It’s their compulsion,” Khattar said.

”But it’s not that the name INDIA will make a big difference. Once upon a time, DK Baruah said ‘Indira is India, India is Indira’… Using the name India makes no difference, all depends on what is the ideology of the person and the party… What are their achievements, what is the impact of their actions on people,” he said.

He added that the Opposition alliance was a ”makeshift grouping”.

Asked about the communal violence in Nuh, Khattar claimed they could stop it within four hours.

Five people, including two home guards, were killed in the Nuh violence, which later spread to adjoining Gurugram where an imam was murdered in an attack on a mosque.

”Sometimes things happen in a society which government has nothing to do with… Incidents and accidents happen. The government should be evaluated on the basis of how quickly they react,” Khattar said.

”We could control the whole situation in four hours… Such situations at times take days and months to be controlled,” he said.

”It’s also not that an incident is happening for the first time. When the Jat agitation happened, it took two days to control the situation,” the chief minister said referring to the Jat reservation agitation of 2016.

”A government should be judged by how soon they could control the situation. So it’s not a failure,” he said.

On the Uniform Civil Code, Khattar said he was in its favour, but his state has so far not taken any steps to implement it.

Talking about the JJP-BJP alliance in the state, he said it was a post-poll alliance ”formed out of compulsion”.

”There are two types of alliances, one is alliance between two parties, the other is one made to form government,” Khattar said.

”Ours was a post-poll alliance because we were falling short of some seats,” he said.

The chief minister said it is for the BJP’s central leadership to decide on an alliance with the JJP for the 2023 Lok Sabha elections.

Source: Press Trust of India