Aruna Sudan (right) and Bimla attend the Prime Minister’s meeting in Ambala. Photo: Samreen Wani
As Haryana gears up for elections on May 25, issues surrounding women, treatment of wrestlers and farmers’ protests are weighing heavily on voters’ minds.
“Women from villages used to defecate in the open. They also used the chulha (open stone stove for cooking), which caused them lung problems. Only my ‘big brother’ thought about these women and the Muslim women whose husbands deserted them after pronouncing talaq thrice,” said Poonam Aggarwal, president of the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Aggarwal is among thousands of women who attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first rally at the Police Line ground in Ambala city on Saturday.
In Kaithal, Pitaso, in his fifties, is visibly angry over the treatment of farmers by the ruling BJP. She is not influenced by the promises of any political party. “They’re all birds of the feather,” says Pitaso.
“I will first ask for my rights and for an assurance that we will meet our demands,” said Pitaso, who is actively involved in the farmers’ agitation, including the one in Delhi.
Neelam, another farmer from Pai village in Kaithal, is angry over the ‘injustice’ being done to the farmers. “There’s just papers being pushed around; there are no jobs and no MSP (minimum support price) for farmers,” she says.
Modi, who at the start of his speech in Ambala on Saturday invoked Bharat Mata, Goddess Ambika and Goddess Manasa Devi, supported the candidature of Banto Kataria of Ambala. Kataria is the widow of Rattan Lal Kataria, former foreign minister and two-time MP from Ambala constituency. Saturday was also the death anniversary of Rattan Lal Kataria.
“She got the ticket after years of political struggle and hard work; Do you think this is a small thing for women? We, sisters of Banto Kataria, would like to assure her that we will all ensure her victory,” said Aggarwal as all party members around her nodded in agreement.
Anil Malik, a farmer from Hisar, recalls recently watching a video of Naina Chautala, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate from Hisar. Naina Singh Chautala is the wife of Ajay Singh Chautala, a Rajya Sabha member and the mother of Dushyant Chautala, the former deputy chief minister of Haryana.
“She talked about respect for women in that video. When our daughters, wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Vignesh Phogat, protested at the Jantar Mantar, the police kicked them with their shoes. No one thought about women’s pride then?”
Last year, Indian wrestlers, including many from Haryana, protested to seek an inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment of female athletes by BJP MP and former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh. His son is contesting from the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on a BJP ticket.
Fifty-five-year-old Neelam from Ambala says the BJP has delivered exactly what it promised for the past decade. Baby, 48, agrees: “It opened the Ram Mandir and we Hindus can now visit that place… As a Hindu, he (Modi) fulfills our wishes.”
Neelam’s three sons work in the unorganized sector. When asked how the family manages its finances given the unreliable source of income, she says: “Ho jaata hai (we will manage somehow).” All she wants now is a pucca house under PM Awas Yojana.
Aruna Sudan, 38, believes the BJP government has used public money for the right policies. “The Women Reservation Bill will benefit women from Haryana as it is a rural state and women cannot exercise their rights here.”
First print: May 21, 2024 | 12:07 pm IST