To not lose face, BJP to let Khattar survive as CM for now despite three big strikes

Mayhem enveloped parts of North India, particularly Haryana, when a CBI court in Panchkula convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for raping two women. After the verdict, his followers went on a rampage, resorting to arson and various acts of violence, leading to 32 people losing their lives.

But even this was not enough to warrant to knock Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar off his post.

This is despite the fact that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has castigated him for letting Haryana "burn".

More so, even though the BJP in Haryana stands accused of politically colluding with the Dera, it has decided to stand by Khattar instead of making him the fall guy for the failure of the government in preventing such an uproar.

So even though this is Khattar's third strike - the abysmal handling of the 2016 Jat agitation and the violence in Mewat in August 2016 being the first two - it looks like Khattar is here to stay.

For now.

'All is well'

Even as the Opposition has trained its guns on the Khattar government in Haryana, the BJP came out in defence of the embattled Chief Minister and dismissed rumours that the party may act against him.

On the day of the verdict, BJP national president Amit Shah had held a meeting with Haryana party in charge Anil Jain amid speculations that the party top brass was unhappy with Khattar and would ask him to resign form his post.

But Jain asserted that all was well. “There is no question of asking Khattar to resign, nor has he been summoned for any explanation,” said Jain, after his meeting with Shah and party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya at the BJP headquarters.

He even credited the Khattar administration for efforts in controlling the situation.

“There are millions of Dera followers and despite that, the administration was able to bring Ram Rahim Singh to court without any bloodshed. Yes, people were killed but that happened only after the verdict. All those killed were Dera hooligans. The administration brought things under control in just three hours which speaks a lot,” said Jain.

Indefensible

His comments came on a day when the Punjab Haryana High Court pulled down Khattar for "protecting and extending political patronage" to the rapist godman.

“This was a political surrender to lure vote banks…they were outsiders, you allowed them to enter and stay,” an HC bench told the state government.

BJP’s social media head, Amit Malviya, too defended Khattar. Taking to twitter, he hailed the Haryana administration for handling a difficult situation. “Haryana govt has done well to contain a difficult situation in less than 3hrs after conviction, yet admin is being targeted for being soft” he tweeted.

While the BJP has been very vocal in seeking the dismissal of the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal over communal violence in the state and the Left regime in Kerala over political violence, it is unwilling to use the same yardstick in case of its own government.

A matter of losing face

Even as it finds it difficult to defend Khattar, the BJP says sacking him will be conceding ground to the Opposition.

“Replacing Khattar would be a public admission of the state government’s failure in handling the situation, which is not the case. Why should we concede what the opposition is demanding,” said a BJP functionary.

Also, sacking Khattar would mean questioning Modi’s choice. A first time MLA and a long RSS Pracharak, Khattar, despite not enjoying support of many of his MLAs, was appointed the Chief Minister, courtesy his personal equation with the Prime Minister.

Close ties with the Dera

Among the other considerations for the party are its close ties with the controversial sect. A host of prominent state and central BJP leaders share a cosy relation with Ram Rahim Singh, who in 2014 had announced that he supported the BJP.

With a huge voter base comprising a fair section of Dalits, the Dera plays an important role in BJP’s scheme of things for the 2019 polls.

But it is being speculated that the end of Khattar's career may not be all that far; that BJP will retire him on a later day once the dust has settled, citing something as politically trivial as "health issues".

But that will probably only happen once the BJP finds a suitable replacement. While Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala and state finance minister Captain Abhimanyu are two of the prominent faces, the BJP top brass is unlikely to go for either of them.

While Abhimanyu doesn’t fit the picture in terms of the BJP’s image as against corruption, Barala recently had to face embarrassment over his son indicted of stalking a woman.

Off with his head

The Opposition's clamour for Khattar's head continues to grow.

The CPI (M) demanded Khattar’s sacking holding him responsible for the complete breakdown of law and order. The Congress said imposition of President’s rule was the “only way” to control the situation.

Joining the chorus, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati said the Khattar government “should be immediately dismissed for its absolute laxity and involvement leading to large-scale violence”.

While it appears the under fire Khattar may have weathered the storm for now , his stay at the helm for long is unlikely.