The Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken strong exception to the recent statement of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seeking creation of “Vishal Haryana” by including parts of Uttar Pradesh, saying that it was a conspiracy to create “tension” in the region.
Haryana BJP spokesperson Raman Malik, in a strongly worded statement, said Mr. Hooda’s assertion seeking creation of greater Haryana was an attempt to invoke “casteist sentiments” and poison the society.
Accusing Mr. Hooda, a Jat leader, of appeasing a particular caste, Mr. Malik, in an obvious reference to the Jat reservation agitation of 2016, said that “a movement was started for a particular community and an audio clip of a former political adviser of Mr. Hooda had come out in public in this connection”. He said that the movement was an attempt to seek political mileage by burning Haryana.
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Referring to the alleged statement of ex-Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda against a particular community, Mr. Malik said that it was still fresh in the memory of the people.
He said that Haryana did not belong to one community, but to the remaining 35 communities as well. Mr. Malik said that Mr. Hooda would have to pay for any misadventure to push the State into anarchy for narrow political gains.
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Mr. Hooda had on Tuesday said that Haryana was the result of division of East Punjab between Punjabi-speaking and Hindi-speaking areas and appealed for creation of “Vishal Haryana” since some pockets of Uttar Pradesh shared Haryana’s culture and language.
He had added that Delhi should be the capital of “Vishal Haryana”.