Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 26: Even as the BJP government at the centre won the first round of legal battle with the Supreme Court refusing to entertain a plea challenging the inauguration of the new Parliament building by the prime minister Narendra Modi instead of the president Droupadi Murmu, the party government in Haryana particularly is feeling the heat over the protest organised in Delhi on the occasion on Sunday.
While the Union government is getting ready for a grand inauguration of the new Parliament building, various groups in Haryana — from farmers’ unions to khap panchayats — are planning to converge outside the building the same day to hold a mahapanchayat. In attendance will be the wrestlers from their state who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in the national capital since April 23 demanding the arrest of BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment of female wrestlers.
On Thursday, a kisan panchayat was convened at the Khatkar toll plaza on the Jind-Narwana national highway in Haryana. At the event, former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik shared the stage with leaders of farmers’ unions and several protesting wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat. Both Punia, an Olympic medalist, and Phogat, an Asian Games gold medalist, have been traversing through Haryana and neighbouring states to seek support for the mahapanchayat on Sunday.
In Delhi, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices J.K. Maheshwari and P.S. Narasimha said it was not “inclined” to hear the petition filed by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, the petitioner in person. The petition was urgently listed before the Vacation Bench. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was appearing for the Union.
When Sukin urged the Court to permit him to withdraw the petition, Mehta said the lawyer may then go and file it before another Court and keep the issue alive. Mehta said the Supreme Court should record a dismissal of the petition in the order to make it conclusive.
Sukin’s petition was filed on Thursday amidst a heated and very public debate between the government and the Opposition over the inauguration of the new Parliament building. The Opposition accused the government of sidelining the President, thus heaping “insult” on the first citizen and the head of the state. The government has recounted instances in the past when the Prime Minister had inaugurated a Parliament annexe.
“So, what is your interest in filing this petition?” Justice Narasimha asked Sukin during the hearing. “She is my President. I am a citizen,” Sukin responded. The lawyer referred to Article 79 of the Constitution which stated that there “shall be a Parliament for the Union, which will consist of the President and two Houses to be called respectively the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha)“.
“What is the connection between Article 79 and the inauguration function?” Justice Maheshwari asked. “The President is the head of the Parliament. The Prime Minister is only the head of the executive government. It is for the President to inaugurate…” Sukin said. But the Court said it could not intervene in the issue on the basis of a petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution.
But the inauguration of the new Parliament building may not be as happy an occasion for the BJP government in Haryana which is battling hard for the last few days to meet the challenges thrown by possible large congregation of the protesting people from the state when the prime minister reach the venue to inaugurate it.
Many in Haryana are preparing for another long-drawn battle in extending support to the agitating wrestlers from the state with the year-long protest by the farmers was still fresh in their memories. Vinesh Phogat during her whirlwind tour of the state for support to their cause criticised the lack of action against Brij Bhushan, saying, “When we won medals for our country, we were made to feel that daughters get immense respect in this country. But today, those very daughters are forced to sit on the roads seeking justice, and nobody is bothered. This is a fight for the honour of our Tricolour. A mahapanchayat shall be held outside the Parliament building on May 28.”
“We appeal to all the youth and the women of this country to reach New Delhi and participate in this mahapanchayat. We shall weed out all such people like Brij Bhushan, who are occupying key positions, not only in wrestling, but also several other sports federations,” she added.
Sensing discontent, especially in rural areas, the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has started holding “Jan Samvad (public connect)” programmes across the state since April. He is spending three days in each district and interacting especially with the rural electorate. So far, Khattar has covered the four districts of Bhiwani, Palwal, Kurukshetra, Sirsa and Mahendragarh.
In Sirsa, the outreach events were disrupted for three straight days, including an incident involving a woman sarpanch who confronted Khattar and threw her dupatta (stole) at his feet. Subsequently, the CM blamed people of “a few political parties” for these disruptions and directed the administration to prevent these. Khattar also sought “action against those people who disrupt any other political party’s programme too.”
What has exacerbated the problem for Khattar is not only has the wrestlers’ protest galvanised the Opposition and received the support of the khaps and farmers’ bodies, but some in his party and ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) have also expressed their support for the protesters. The BJP leaders to have expressed their support include former Union minister Birender Singh, his son and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, and Haryana power minister Ranjit Singh, an Independent MLA from Rania. The JJP leader Dushyant Chautala, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, has demanded the “strictest possible action” based on the FIRs against Brij Bhushan.
Not only Haryana, a section of the BJP leadership in Uttar Pradesh, the home state of Brij Bhushan, are also embarrassed over the centre’s inaction against the WFI president apparently just because he was an influential MP for the party.
The party has decided to stay away from Brij Bhushan’s show of strength in Ayodhya on June 5. The Kaiserganj BJP MP is making preparations to address the Jan Chetna Maha Rally at the Ram Katha Park in Ayodhya where sadhus as well as experts in law, education, and social work have been invited from several states. But the Ayodhya BJP has distanced itself from the rally.
The rally is being held at a time when the Delhi Police has registered two FIRs against the MP. Since the FIRs were filed, Singh had been staying away from political programmes. But, he has been touring different districts of UP’s Awadh region, including Gonda, Ayodhya, Bahraich and Basti, over the past week to invite people to the Ayodhya rally.
“The BJP is not associated with the rally. We’ll participate only if the leadership asks us to. So far, we have received no such directions,” said BJP’s Ayodhya district president Sanjeev Singh. Another senior BJP leader from Awadh said, “Party workers won’t join the rally because Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is organising it in his personal capacity.”
The BJP has so far not acted against the MP and, according to sources, has not even issued him a show-cause notice. Last week, Singh attended an executive committee meeting of the BJP’s Awadh unit in Lucknow where discussions were held on preparations for the party’s Mahasampark Abhiyan from May 30 to mark nine years of the Modi government.