Simply hours after he walked off the stage mid-speech at the state-level Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas function at Maharana Pratap Swarn Jayanti Park, Sector 29, Gurugram, an unsparing Rao Inderjit Singh informed The Tribune in an unique interview that Haryana’s political and governance panorama can’t be allowed to turn out to be a Punjabi-only present, and that he walked out as a result of his seniority, the get together’s personal protocol and the self-respect of “locals” had been trampled on stage.
“I took a stand for get together self-discipline and for a caste-inclusive Haryana for all 36 castes of Haryana,” Singh mentioned, making clear that his walkout was not a momentary impulse however the boiling level of one thing he says he has swallowed for a lot too lengthy.
Singh claimed his identify didn’t determine on the invitation in any respect within the preliminary spherical of playing cards circulated for the occasion. It was solely after Haryana BJP president Dr Archana Gupta stepped in and reframed it as a celebration occasion, making certain his inclusion, that his identify was added on the final second, alongside Rao Narbir Singh, beneath “esteemed presence.”
The set off for the walkout, Singh mentioned, got here when BJP nationwide president Nitin Nabin spoke and, after him, area people chief Swami Dharamdev Ji Maharaj was handed the mic to deal with the gathering, whereas Singh’s personal identify was lacking from the audio system’ listing altogether.
“It’s like several of us, any of the Cupboard ministers, taking the stage after the Prime Minister has spoken. Does that occur? It was flawed,” he mentioned, arguing that when the get together’s nationwide president has addressed a gathering, giving the ground to anybody else afterward defies fundamental protocol.
He didn’t cease at protocol. Singh additionally flagged what he known as a structural absurdity within the invitation itself — two chairpersons named for a single operate: Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini and Union Minister Manohar Lal.
“There needs to be some logic to how the get together stays disciplined — all these violations are occurring,” he mentioned.
“I’ve been dealing with this ignorance of protocol and seniority for a very long time now.” He cited a near-identical episode in Bawal, the place he mentioned neither his identify nor that of the native MLA featured on the invitation.
However Singh’s sharpest fireplace was reserved for what he known as the Punjabi-centric seize of the occasion — and of Haryana’s politics extra broadly.
Of Gurugram’s 36 councillors, he identified, solely two are Punjabi; the lone Punjabi candidate who fought purely on neighborhood traces managed simply 48,000 votes and misplaced. “It doesn’t work with only one neighborhood,” he mentioned flatly.
Each neighborhood, he insisted, has an equal declare to Partition’s reminiscence — not only one.
“Each caste both suffered throughout Partition or welcomed those that migrated with open arms — and so they have grown collectively since,” Singh mentioned, including that the unique migrants who arrived after Partition at the moment are nearly fully gone — “some are left, most 85–90 years previous” — and their descendants, born and raised within the state, are “core Haryanvis” who can’t be carved out or set other than its collective id.
“I desire a unified Haryana of 36 biradaris,” he mentioned.
