Haryana wants governance, not Gurugram

The BJP-ruled Haryana government's move to rename Gurgaon - the corporate city that is home to about 250 Fortune 500 companies - to Gurugram, and Mewat to Nuh, can only be termed criminal and indefensible. Because there is a host of urgent issues that have been neglected while the state government has indulged in an act which is more cosmetic in nature. While several pressing problems are screaming for immediate attention, the ML Khattar government is busy changing names - which is a pointer to its utterly misplaced priorities.

Renaming cities involves immense paper and administrative work and investment of time, money and resources. It would have been prudent on the part of Khattar and his team to focus on issues that are a matter of life and death for the people of Haryana.

These are at least six issues that warranted Haryana government's attention before Gurgaon could be rechristened Gurugram:

1. Drought woes

While Haryana is reeling under severe drought conditions - seventh in the last 11 years - the state government is not serious in tackling the problem. Incidentally, the Supreme Court reprimanded the Haryana government over the severe drought situation the same day the latter decided to rename Gurgaon and Mewat.

On April 13, the Supreme Court lashed out at the Haryana government for not filing an affidavit on the drought situation before arguments could be completed. The apex court took the Khattar government to task saying the proceedings were not a "tamasha" or a "joke".

"You have addressed the court without filing the affidavit, and now you want to file an affidavit. Is this the procedure being followed in Supreme Court? Why should we accept your affidavit? Is this the way litigations are conducted? Is this the procedure you want us to follow? It is not an ordinary litigation.

"What if you are submitting something different from what you said in court in the last hearing? Now we have to cross-check the facts again. Should we do the complete hearing again? For what purpose you had given the data to us. This shows how serious you are about the case. We will not take your affidavit.

"This is not a joke going on. Tamasha chal raha hai yahan (Is this a show going on here)? ... This is not acceptable at all," a bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and NV Ramana said.

Even during the previous hearing on April 7, the apex court had reprimanded the Haryana and Gujarat governments for filing shoddy statistics on the drought-hit areas. "Why have you filed all this? You found these papers in your office and filed them here? Is this seriousness that you show on this issue? People are dying. This is not some picnic you are having in Haryana," the court said while rejecting statistics filed by the state government, a matter of utter shame for the BJP-ruled states.

2. Response to Jat quota issue

The state government miserably failed in dealing with the ten-day agitation for Jat reservation. As a result, 28 people died and about 200 were injured during the violence. According to some estimates, the state suffered financial losses worth Rs 35,000 crore due to the agitation. The state also got a bad name due to reports of gangrapes at Murthal during the agitation.

Prime minister Narendra Modi too issued a warning to the Union home ministry and the Haryana government against security lapse and repeat of the violence witnessed during the Jat reservation stir. However, instead of plugging the loopholes and ensuring that such agitations do not recur, the state government has shown immense immaturity in resorting to name changing. As it is, the record of Haryana in maintaining law and order condition is far from satisfactory. In almost all the parameters of National Crime Records Bureau, it stands towards the end of all the states and Union territories.

3. Whitefly menace

In 2015, Haryana and Punjab had suffered enormous losses due to the whitefly menace. The pest attack had caused widespread damage to Bt cotton varieties in the two states, resulting in about 40 per cent dip in output. More than 50 per cent of the crop was affected in Haryana - out of 5.83 lakh hectares, 3.06 lakh hectares were damaged. In Punjab, 1.36 lakh hectares out of a total of 4.50 lakh hectares of cotton acreage were damaged by white flies. The state government needs to educate farmers, provide pesticides and take other measures to ensure that there is no repeat of the menace. However, it seems occupied with superficial matters like renaming of towns.

4. Alarming sex ratio

One of the greatest problems facing Haryana is the skewed sex ratio. According to Census 2011, the state has 879 girls for every 1,000 men against a national average of 943. It ranks 30 among 35 states and Union territories, while Kerala tops at 1084. The situation is so alarming that men do not get brides and the local leaders are promising brides from other states. BJP leader OP Dhankar allegedly promised brides from Bihar if BJP came to power in the 2014 Assembly elections. Dhankar had earlier lost to Deepender Singh Hooda, son of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Rohtak in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

5. Poor literacy rate

Haryana's record in literacy is also not very encouraging. As per 2011 Census, the state ranks 22 out of 35 states and Union territories. While the national average is 74.04 per cent (82.14 per cent for men and 65.46 per cent for women), Haryana's literacy rate is just slightly better at 75.55 per cent (84.06 per cent for men and 65.94 for women). Instead of striving to match Kerala's average literacy rate of 94 per cent (96.11 for males and 92.07 for females), Haryana is spending its energy on changing names. It will not be a surprise if the state further slips instead of improving its literacy rate.

6. Harassment of efficient officers

It seems the Haryana government is channelling its energy and resources on wrong priorities. Besides the renaming drama, it is seen harassing an efficient and honest officer like Ashok Khemka who had exposed the dubious land deals between Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty major DLF in Haryana. The previous Hooda government had victimised Khemka by transferring him frequently. The BJP fought and won the 2014 Lok Sabha and Haryana Assembly elections and the dubious Vadra land deals played a major role in both of them.

Khemka was posted as transport commissioner in November 2014 soon after the BJP came to power in the state and Khattar became the CM. However, he was transferred to the  low-key archaeology and museums department on April 1, 2015. Khemka was promoted to the rank of principal secretary in January 2016, but had to wait for more than three months for a posting. He was finally posted to the science and technology department on April 7.

After the outrage on social media on renaming Gurgaon and the widespread criticism it has received, the Haryana government should hopefully focus on development and governance issues if it wants to return to power in the next Assembly elections.