CHANDIGARH: There is no better time than elections to promise the moon. And in poll-bound Haryana, netas have mastered the art. From catchy slogans, jingles on TV channels and FM radio, music videos on the Internet, social media, innovative posters to even colours of turbans of the partymen, you will struggle to name a place where Haryana’s netas have not ventured, to crow their ‘achievements’ or what they are ‘capable of achieving’.
While in its effort to pull off a victory for the third consecutive time, the ruling Bhupinder Singh Hooda government is singing its own praise aloud to pocket that extra vote, and the state’s principal opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD); the Jan Chetna Party floated by former Congress leader Venod Sharma; the Haryana Lokhit Party of former state home minister Gopal Goyal Kanda are not behind in the rat race.
If the BJP is using its proven “achhe din aane waale hain” slogan and the Narendra Modi factor to woo voters, the state’s Congress government takes the cake for its ad blitzkrieg. It has launched an onslaught of campaigns such as “sabse aage Haryana, sabse uppar Haryana” (Haryana is ahead of all, above all) to pat its own back.
The two-minute jingle that’s aired on FM and TV channels eulogises Haryana—“Poori duniya me apni alag pehchan, number one Haryana, Hooda ji ka Haryana, chahe khet hon, khel ya jung ka maidan, sabse aage Haryana, sabse uppar Haryana”. It covers the entire spectrum by lauding the state’s achievements in luring investment with “sabse jyada nivesh yahan”, and wooing farmers with promise of MSP in “faslon ke be badhiya daam”, the poor with the line “garib bachon ki shiksha”and the sportspersons with the praise of “pehelwans”.
Another two-minute video shows a beaming Hooda: “Hooda sahib ka paryas” with a punch line “aise hi vikas kareyenge”.
These are part of 14 ad campaigns that have prompted INLD leaders to accuse the Hooda government of misuse of public funds of over `100 crore. The Punjab and Haryana High Court last week issued notice to the state government for allegedly releasing the advertisements eulogising Hooda. The court asked the CM, secretary and director of department of information, public relations and cultural affairs to file their reply by September 4, acting on a PIL filed by a Panchkula resident
The “No. 1 Haryana”, a six-minute video uploaded on social network websites, claims electricity bills worth `1,600 crore from farmers have been waived, steps taken for women empowerment and social security for elders.
However, the Haryana Lokhit Party, led by Hooda’s erstwhile home minister and now bête noire Kanda, is in a peculiar situation for its slogan promising education, security and honour for women.
The party’s ‘Har nari ko shiksha, suraksha va samman’ slogan is viewed by his opponents as an oxymoron given Kanda’s one-and-a-half years’ jail term for 2012 suicide of a woman employee, Geetika Sharma. This had also cost Kanda his ministry.
A Facebook campaign, ‘Fight for Justice Fight for Geetika’, has been launched against Kanda, now on bail, by Avantika Tanwar, wife of state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar that has attacked the party’s slogan.
While jingles lend sound to the campaign, turbans add colours. From leaders to supporters, everyone dons turbans and other accessories in the colour of their parties showing the myriad shades of the state’s politics—pink, yellow, red, saffron, and green.
Green is the preferred colour for INLD whose ‘Green Brigade’ has been wearing the hue on all occasions and pink has been picked by Hooda. Yellow is the shade of the HJC of Kuldip Bishnoi while Kanda has chosen ‘kesari’. Not to be left behind, Sharma has settled for the more revolutionary red. Netas of Haryana are showing their true colours, literally.