No Modi charisma in Haryana polls: Selja

As political parties are pulling out all the stops to bring the maximum number of vote-share to their fold in the 90-member Haryana assembly election, which is scheduled to be held on October 21, the Congress is banking upon its newly elected woman president Kumari Selja to dent the vote-share of ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other regional parties – Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).

In an exclusive interview to Millennium Post, Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja told Dhirendra Kumar that the Congress is going to win a maximum number of seats in the state as there is neither Modi nor Article 370 charisma is Haryana. Excerpts:

There are talks that Modi charisma is still in existence and it would make BJP win the Haryana assembly elections very comfortably. What are your comments?

There is no Modi charisma in Haryana. Now, these issues wouldn't resonate. People of the state are more concerned about the issues which are directly related to them and their everyday life. Whatever big tall things that can be summed up in one word jumlebaazi done by the Modi government are not going to affect the daily lives of common people.

What are the main issues that Congress is going to take up?

The issues that affect the state's youth are quality education, employment, drug menace, but the incumbent ML Khattar government has not done anything to address all such key issues during his regime. It's very unfortunate for the youths of the state that the BJP government has done only negative things for them. The drug menace has increased manifold in the state.

When our government in Punjab came down heavily on drug mafias soon after coming power by setting up a Special Task Force (STF), why the BJP government lacked behind? Why they (BJP) allowed drug mafias to prosper in Haryana? The drug menace in Haryana has gone up like anything.

Now come at jobs. The state Chief Minister ML Khattar talks about providing so and so number of jobs during his regime, but he has no study or any authentic papers to support his claims. Youths of the state are being cheated. It's a fact that Haryana has the highest rate of unemployment – 28 per cent. The CM is just rubbishing the report, but he is not producing any supportive papers. Recently the state government had conducted interviews for 4,862 clerks' post in which almost 15 lakh youth appeared, which shows the real picture of unemployment in the state.

Is Congress is going to introduce the farm loan waiver scheme in Haryana too if it comes to power?

As our party is committed towards the holistic welfare of poor, so when our government comes to power, we will waive loans of the poor, especially people who take small loans. We are also going to write off the loans of farmers who are being pushed to a corner and are suffering under the BJP government. The loan waiver would be implemented within days of assuming power as has been done in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

The BJP is considering abrogation of Article 370 is a winning factor. What are your comments?

This jumla is not going to work in Haryana. The moment BJP rakes up this issue, people start recalling the statements of the state Chief Minister ML Khattar who had said that Haryana boys would be able to get girls from Kashmir. It reflects their poor mindset towards women. At one hand they talk about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao while on the other hand CM Khattar considers women as property. They had tried to inject it, but now they are not talking about it as it's going against them.

The former Congress president Ashok Tanwar has left the party. How much will it affect?

The Congress party does not belong to any individual but it's like a family that functions on the basis of an ideology. Tomorrow I may not be the president, but the party will continue to function on its ideologies and objectives. Congress has seen such rebellions in the past and has always come out stronger due to its inherent strengths. Congress has the resilience to take these things.

The Haryana government is propagating a lot about improved sex ratio. Has it happened or not?

As they are a master in fudging the data, so we will find out when our government will in power. When are hiding the data of crime against women in the state, they might have done in this case too. The crime against women has increased manifold in the state and that's why they are not releasing the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report. The last NCRB report had come in 2016 and since then no NCRB report has come out. So you can understand what they can do with the figures.