Chandigarh, July 8: Does the BJP’s “washing machine” mantra of giving “political freedom” work in Haryana too to retain power for the second consecutive term?
Political opponents say yes as its crucial alliance partner Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) leader and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s father was released as a quid pro quo ahead of completing a 10-year sentence for corruption, criminal conspiracy, and forgery in the teachers’ recruitment scam.
The post-election “holy alliance” is often dubbed by opponents as an alliance of opportunists for two reasons: First, to retain the helm; and second, an opportunity for the JJP to keep Dushyant’s father Ajay Chautala out of jail on furloughs time and again.
In October 2019, as Dushyant, whose party won 10 seats on an anti-BJP agenda, stitched together an alliance with the BJP after holding parleys with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, his father got a two-week furlough from Delhi’s Tihar Jail just hours ahead of the oath-taking ceremony of his son.
Shortly before entering into the alliance, Dushyant along with nine legislators had met his father in the Tihar Jail complex to take a decision on supporting the BJP after the assembly election verdict threw up a hung House.
After walking out of Tihar Jail on October 27, 2019, Ajay Chautala had remarked, “Dushyant asked me if he should go with the BJP or the Congress. I told him, whatever the circumstances, we shall never go with the Congress. I gave him the go-ahead to go with the BJP. It is a matter of pride for us that he has got into an alliance with the BJP. It will be beneficial for the state.”
Dushyant’s father Ajay Chautala and his grandfather O.P. Chautala, who heads the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), were among the 55 people convicted by a Delhi court on January 13, 2013, for illegally recruiting 3,206 basic teachers in Haryana in 1999-2000 when the senior Chautala was the chief minister.
Ajay Chautala, founder and chief of the JJP, was released from the jail after completing his sentence on February 7 last year.
When he was granted furlough as a special case in 2019, the BJP’s critics questioned it by saying no parole was granted to self-styled godman Asaram Bapu in the past six years even when his wife was seriously ill and also when one of his relatives died.
However, the JJP at that time clarified that Ajay Chautala had applied for furlough 10 days earlier.
That was the third time in 2019 that he had sought furlough. He was released earlier in June to appear for an examination in Sirsa.
Before that, he was released in April on a 21-day parole and campaigned extensively in the parliamentary polls. At that time the JJP had an electoral alliance with the AAP in Haryana.
Later, he was released on emergency parole in April 2020 owing to Covid-19 and surrendered in February 2021. He was again released in May 2021 when cases of Covid-19 infection spread rapidly inside the prison for the second time.
In February 2022, Ajay Chautala reported at Tihar jail during the day and was formally released for completing his sentence after he deposited the fine amount. During his 10-year incarceration, he got a total remission of two years, seven months and 24 days.
A year earlier, Ajay Chautala’s father and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala was released after completing his jail term.
A high court order on August 28, 2018, gave Ajay Chautala parole for one month for the marriage of his younger son. It observed that he had been granted parole and furlough nine times between 2016 and 2018 for a number of weeks.
In October 2019, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had hit out at the BJP over the release of Ajay Chautala from Tihar Jail by tweeting, “The machine to wash corruption charges is on.”
When the AAP government in Delhi was questioned, it had clarified the Delhi government had no role in the decision and furlough for convicts in Tihar Jail was decided by the prison’s Director General.
“The BJP has rewarded Ajay Chautala for support of the JJP to the BJP government in Haryana,” the AAP government had said.
In the government, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala holds key portfolios, including revenue, excise and industries. He contested the Lok Sabha elections on behalf of his grandfather’s INLD and became the youngest MP at 26 in 2014.
In 2019 amid the ongoing tussle over government formation in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut remarked, “We do not have any Dushyant here whose father is inside the jail. Here it’s us who do politics of dharma and satya (righteousness and truth).”
