Bloodline, bahus & ‘green brigade’ ally—clash for Devi Lal’s legacy in Hisar

Hisar: At around a quarter past seven on Thursday evening, roughly 60 villagers in Haryana’s Kutiyanwali village, some clutching marigold garlands, stirred to attention as a cavalcade of about 20 vehicles approached. Well before it reached them, a loudspeaker began blaring appeals to support Jai Parkash, the Congress candidate contesting for the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. Like others in the race, he too stakes claim to the legacy of the late former deputy prime minister, two-time Haryana chief minister, and Jat icon Devi Lal.

In Hisar, three members of the feuding Devi Lal clan are in the fray. While his son Ranjit Singh is fighting on a BJP ticket, two granddaughters-in-law, Sunaina Chautala and Naina Chautala, are contesting for the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) respectively. But if Ranjit Singh boasts bloodline and the two women claim bahu status as their claim to Devi Lal’s political legacy, Parkash asserts himself as a one-time political companion.

At the public meeting last Thursday, amid greeting and garlands, Parkash took the stage, thanking “the people of Kutiyanwali” for their warm welcome. Someone shouted out that village is now called Veerpur—it was one of several to be renamed by the state’s BJP government. Translated literally, Kutiyanwali means abode of female dogs. Undeterred, Parkash launched into his long history with Adampur, the assembly segment of Hisar under which Kutiyanwali falls.

“I am indebted to the people of the Adampur assembly segment. Though Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Leader of Opposition in the Haryana assembly) reposed faith in me and gave me a ticket to contest from this seat, he told me that he got hundreds of calls from people from the Adampur assembly segment asking him to give the ticket to me,” Parkash said.

In a reference to the 2022 bypoll to Adampur assembly seat, which he had lost to the BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi, Parkash claimed that many people voted for the ruling party because they wanted work like electricity connections for tubewells expedited.

“You know your electricity connections were never approved by the government. So, this time I request all of you with folded hands to vote for me,” he said.

Parkash then jumped from the pragmatic to the emotive—his association with Devi Lal.

“As Chaudhary Devi Lal’s son, he (Ranjit Singh) claims right of legacy. What is his right over Devi Lal’s legacy when he never participated in any struggle with him?” Jai Parkash asked.

It’s not the first time he has taken this line. In an earlier media interaction, he recounted how Devi Lal dispatched him with a team of motorbike-borne youths, clad in green shirts, to support VP Singh in the 1988 bypoll against the Congress in Allahabad. This mission earned him notoriety as the leader of the infamous “green brigade,” accused by Devi Lal’s opponents of trying to rig polling booths in Haryana. In 1989, Parkash became an MP from Hisar for the first time and was appointed a minister at the Centre when Devi Lal became deputy PM.

“See, I am Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s lieutenant in politics. I am here contesting as his (Hooda’s) candidate. I was asked to comment on how I felt facing three members of Devi Lal’s clan. I told them that none of them had ever been the companions of Devi Lal during his struggle,” Jai Parkash said when The Print caught him after his speech at Kutiyanwali. “They have not followed the principles for which Devi Lal stood throughout his life. They have rather spoiled his name through corruption he was always against, and have always fought with each other for power and money.”

However, Parkash’s contenders have been no less vocal in reminded voters about why they are the rightful legatees of Devi Lal in Haryana, where all 10 seats go to polls on 25 May.

Battle for ideological succession

All major political parties in Haryana have drawn on their ties to Devi Lal in selecting their candidates for Hisar. Ranjit Singh of the BJP is Devi Lal’s eldest son. Sunaina Chautala, representing the INLD, is the wife of Ravi Chautala, Devi Lal’s grandson through Partap Singh Chautala. Naina Chautala, nominated by the JJP, is married to Ajay Chautala, the son of another of Devi Lal’s sons, Om Prakash Chautala.

But Congress candidate Jai Parkash maintains that sons, daughters, and other family members automatically have a claim to political legacy in monarchies but not in democracies.

“Many people like me worked shoulder to shoulder with Chaudhary Devi Lal during his years of struggle that eventually led to his becoming the deputy PM. So, people like me who followed politics of honesty and people’s welfare like Devi Lal deserve his political legacy,” he told ThePrint. “His sons and grandson can definitely have a claim to his physical assets and they can rest assured that I don’t intend to have any claim over their wealth!”

However, BJP candidate Ranjit Singh alleged that Jai Parkash and his “green brigade” only caused damage to Devi Lal and his family.

“It was because of Jai Parkash’s green brigade the Meham byelection in 1990 witnessed violence and Devi Lal had to lose the parliamentary election at Rohtak and the assembly election at Ghirai in 1991,” said Ranjit Singh when The Print met him in his Sushila Bhawan office in Hisar Friday.

According to Singh, it was the Modi government that has continued Devi Lal’s legacy of welfare for the poor and farmers, citing initiatives like free health insurance up to Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat, free ration distribution to over 50 percent of the population, and employment opportunities based on merit.

He said that it was due to the old age pension scheme started by Devi Lal that senior citizens in Haryana were now getting Rs 3000 per month, now bolstered with another Rs 6,000 per annum under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi scheme.

“Devi Lal’s pension coupled with Narendra Modi’s Kisan Nidhi is proving helpful for senior citizens from the farming background in Haryana,” he added.

Ranjit Singh was with the Congress before he was denied a ticket in 2019 and ended up contesting and winning the Rania assembly seat as an independent candidate. He then extended support to the BJP and was elevated to the post of minister. He joined the party earlier this year.

Bahus on the warpath

At her residence in Hisar, featuring conspicuous portraits of Devi Lal, Sunaina Chautala was in a hurry to leave for a rally where INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala was slated to speak before she filed her nomination papers Friday.

But she took a few minutes to tell ThePrint why her opponents were not rightful claimants to the Devi Lal name.

Sunaina pointed out “Chachaji” Ranjit Singh parted ways with “Dadaji” Devi Lal to join the Congress and had therefore forfeited the claim to his legacy.

As for the JJP, she said it had broken people’s trust by seeking votes against the BJP in 2019 and then extending its support and joining the Manohar Lal Khattar government, which she alleged was “responsible for excesses on farmers and women wrestlers fighting for their rights”.

Accusing Jai Parkash of political opportunism, she listed out how he had switched allegiances multiple times over the decades.

“Jai Parkash has taken the benefit of people and then left them,” she said. “First, he started with Chaudhary Devi Lal who helped him become and MP and petroleum minister at the Centre in 1989. Then he joined Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party and became an MP in 1996. Then, he left the HVP and joined the Congress and became an MP in 2004. When the Congress didn’t give him a ticket in 2014, he quit the Congress and contested from Kalayat assembly seat as an Independent. In 2019, he again joined the Congress and contested unsuccessfully from Kalayat. Hence, he can’t have claim to anyone’s legacy.”

Although Sunaina Chautala has been an INLD leader for several years, this is the first election she is contesting.

Meanwhile, Naina Chautala of the JJP, a two-time MLA, started her Friday with a public meeting at Daroli, her parental village in the Adampur assembly segment of Hisar.

“Thaari beti hoon. Mera haq banta hai mera chache, tauan, chaachi, taiyan pe (I am your daughter. I have a right over my uncles and aunts),” she told the gathering, exhorting them to look for the key symbol and vote for her.

As she concluded her speech, elderly women surrounded her, handing out Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes as “shagun”—a tradition when married daughters visit their parents’ homes.

Resting later at a house near the venue, Naina pointed at a nearby building and said she was born there.

“Though my father’s home is on the other side of the village, my uncle lives here,” she explained.

With a smile, she said she has been fielding questions about her rivals and their claims to Devi Lal’s legacy ever since her campaign began last month.

According to her, it was not only “Chachaji” Ranjit Singh who had abandoned Devi Lal but that Partap Singh Chautala— Sunaina Chautala’s father-in-law—had also hobnobbed with the Congress.

Naina also dismissed Jai Parkash’s claims of allegiance to Devi Lal.

“During the initial days of his campaign, JP (Jai Parkash) said in reply to questions by some media persons that his leader was Bhupinder Singh Hooda and he didn’t have to do anything with Devi Lal Ji. However, some villagers told him that this will send the wrong message for him and it’s only then that JP has started claiming his right over Devi Lal Ji’s legacy,” she claimed.

Naina added that Devi Lal was such a huge leader that he was a “political university” unto himself, inspiring leaders from Mulayam Singh Yadav to Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Sceptical villagers

At Bandaheri village, approximately 25 kilometres from Hisar town, 56-year-old Subhash Nehra said he has witnessed generation after generation of Devi Lal’s family pass through the revolving doors of power. But none of them could match the patriarch’s stature, according to him.

“Devi Lal was a devta (deity). He must have created more than a hundred political leaders, transforming them from ordinary people to  MPs, MLAs, and ministers,” he said. “But his descendants have only brought a bad name to his legacy though their corruption. Our village largely voted for Devi Lal’s party by whatever name from 1968 to 1987. But after that very few people vote for the family.”

As an example, Nehra pointed to how Om Prakash Chautala and his elder son Ajay faced 10 years in jail in connection with a teachers’ recruitment corruption case.

In a similar vein, Jagbir Nunach, a villager at Garhi near Hisar’s Hansi town said that Devi Lal’s name is invoked during elections, only to be forgotten later.

“Devi Lal was a principled politician. However, gaining power is the only principle of politicians today. They can shift loyalties, can seek vote on an issue and then take a complete somersault once they win,” he said. “Take the example of the JJP. The party sought votes against the BJP and then ditched its voters to align with the BJP for power.”

Born in Sirsa district’s Chautala village in 1914, Devi Lal’s political activism started during the struggle for independence. He served as the chief minister of Haryana from 1977 to 1979 and again from 1987 to 1989. He was also deputy prime minister of India from 1989 to 1991. He died in 2001.

Devi Lal’s eldest son, Om Prakash Chautala, served as the chief minister of Haryana four times, with the longest term being from July 1999 to March 2005.

Partap Singh Chautala, Devi Lal’s second son and Sunaina’s father-in-law, was elected as an MLA from Rori assembly constituency in Sirsa in 1967. Devi Lal’s third son, Ranjit Singh, served as a minister in both Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala’s cabinets. He later joined the Manohar Lal Khattar and Nayab Singh Saini cabinets.

As reported earlier by ThePrint, Chautala village is famous for producing no fewer than five MPs and 14 MLAs.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)