The Sharp Tongue of Anil Vij, Haryana's First Home Minister in 20 Years
New Delhi: By giving the home department to its outspoken and controversial Haryana minister Anil Vij, the Bharatiya Janata Party has not only broken a 20-year precedence of the chief minister holding the all-important portfolio, it has also sent a message that chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar may have failed to handle critical law and order situations in the state with the alacrity they demanded.
On November 14, six more Cabinet ministers and four ministers of state (independent charge) were inducted. Six-time MLA from Ambala Cantonment and one of the most senior party leaders in the state, Vij was given seven departments, including home.
CM loses home portfolio after 20 years
The last independent home minister in Haryana was Mani Ram Godara, in the Bansi Lal government in the last 1990s.
Ever since, all the chief ministers of the state have kept this portfolio with them. According to RTI activist and lawyer Hemant, in July 1999 and February 2000, when Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal became chief minister, he kept the home department with himself.
His successor Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress also became chief minister of the state twice in 2005 and 2009 and both the times, he too saw merit and reasoning in keeping this sensitive department with him.
A break from the past
Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP followed the tradition when his party formed its first government in the state in 2014. However, this time, as BJP failed to garner a majority on its own and formed the government with the help of Jannayak Janata Party, a breakaway group of INLD, floated by senior Chautala’s grandson, Dushyant – and some independents, Khattar had to cede the home department to Vij.
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Among other CMs who have retained home are Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, Bhajan Lal, Rao Birender Singh, Bansi Lal and Banarsi Das Gupta.
The trend was broken when the Haryana Vikas Party led by Bansi Lal and BJP formed a coalition government in 1996. At that time, Godara was made a Cabinet minister and given the home department.
A rap on the knuckle for Khattar?
One of the reasons being cited behind Khattar losing the home portfolio is that during the election campaign all the opposition parties targeted him for failing to maintain law and order in the state. Incidents of firing by police in which 84 people were killed across the state during his five-year rule stood out.
It was alleged that Khattar failed to assess the situation or respond in a measured way during the siege of and violence at Rampal’s ashram in Barwala during November 2014, the Jat reservation agitation in Rohtak, Jind, Sonepat and Jhajjar districts in February 2016, and the way violence and police firing took place at Sirsa and in Panchkula when the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was produced in a court in August 2017.
But the jury is out on whether Vij would prove to be any better when it comes to handling police. In the past, the RSS and ABVP activist, who gave up his job with State Bank of India to get into active politics, has made controversial statements, making him a bit of a gamble in this role.
Controversial comments around beef, religion
One of most controversial comments by Vij has been around the beef controversy and the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
In 2015, Vij demanded that cow be declared the national animal and launched an online poll on the issue. The following year, after Akhlaq’s lynching, he commented that “people who can’t live without eating beef should not come to Haryana”.
He has also had several other religion-related statements to make. In June 2017, he said, “there cannot be a terminology like Hindu terrorism” and went on to accuse the Congress of letting go “terrorists from Pakistan” but capturing Indian citizens and branding them as “Hindu terrorists”.
His temperament has often landed him in trouble. Recently, in May 2019, while campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections in Ambala, he lost his cool and allegedly used abusive language against villagers who were protesting against him and the BJP MP Rattan Lal Kataria.
Vij wanted to be CM
Vij, who harboured the ambition of becoming CM and even stated that he would do his “best if BJP makes [him] Haryana CM,” has naturally been disappointed on that count.
In November 2017, he said that a song that eulogises Mahatma Gandhi with the lyrics “De di humay azaadi bina khadag bina dhal
Bytes sharper than bite
In December 2015, while reacting to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks that she was not afraid of anyone as she was the daughter-in-law of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Vij had commented: “All Congress leaders have a DNA for wrongdoing. Everyone knows that Congress leaders are not afraid of doing wrong things. The DNA of all of you [Congress workers and leaders] is the same.”
Also read: For BJP, a Bitter Reminder That Assembly Polls Are Fought on Local Issues
He had also infamously called Congress “angrezon ki aulad” some years ago.
Earlier this year in March, he mocked then Congress president Rahul Gandhi for raising objections to BJP’s #MainBhiChowkidar campaign by tweeting: “We have added #chowkidar to our names and you have a problem with that. You should also prefix #Pappu to your names and we will have no objection.”
During the Lok Sabha polls, he again ridiculed Rahul, saying he should hide behind his mother if he was scared of the flashes of photographers’ cameras.
When the Congress president resigned after the Lok Sabha poll results, Vij quipped that “not a dog barked when Rahul left”.
Attacks on other personalities
Apart from political personalities, Vij has also targeted a number film and sports celebrities in the past.
In January 2018, Vij accused Sanjay Leela Bhansali of distorting historical facts around Padmavati in his film Padmavat, to “defame” her. He was quoted as saying: “Rani Padmavati is the symbol of Indian women’ pride. Her character assassination will not be tolerated at any level.”
Vij also accused Olympian pugilist Vijender Singh of “running after money” when he turned professional. Since Singh was posted as a DSP in the state police, he said it should be up to the police to take a call on his continuation in the forces.
In November 2015, he misbehaved with IPS officer, Sangeet Rani Kalia, and told her to “get out” of a grievance committee meeting after a brief argument of the issue of illicit liquor being sold in her district of Fatehabad.
He also spoke against Kargil war martyr Mandeep Singh’s daughter Gurmehar Kaur when she raised the issue of violence on college campuses in the wake of clashes that took place in Ramjas College in Delhi. As her placard and posts went viral, Vij accused her of trying to “play politics on her father’s martyrdom.”
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