Haryana netas hurl slangs at one another

Fukra (freebooter), mandhbudhi (dimwit) and bhrasht (corrupt) may not figure in the vocabulary of parliamentarians, but legislators in Haryana have been bandying the words in a free-for-all, addressing one another in words that in the normal course are used as abuse.

The latest showdown was between Haryana assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and Haryana Janhit Congress president and Hisar MP Kuldip Bishnoi.

The Speaker, who on Sunday announced his decision to uphold the “merger” of a group of five defector HJC legislators with the Congress, termed Bishnoi a fukra, who was also bhrasht.

“He lacks proper upbringing,” Sharma said about Bishnoi, son of former Haryana chief minister and political strongman Bhajan Lal. Sharma went on to say Bishnoi was himself a “defector” (Bishnoi had quit the Congress party in 2007) and the “son of a defector”.

“He is getting a taste of his own medicine,” Sharma added, referring to Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal being well known for engineering defections in the 1980s to form the government.

Bhajan Lal’s name became synonymous with the Aya Ram Gaya Ram syndrome, or the revolving door through which politicians walked in and out of parties. He engineered several defections in his time.

Bishnoi hits back within a couple of hours, saying Sharma was a mandhbudhi.
Asked to comment on the Speaker’s remarks on him, Bishnoi said: “Such remarks do not deserve a response. He is insulting the institution of the Speaker by saying all this.”
The five legislators, elected on the HJC ticket in the October 2009 elections, had switched loyalty to the Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, leaving Bishnoi, HJC president, the lone legislator from the party in the Assembly at that time.

While Bishnoi moved a petition with the Assembly Speaker seeking the disqualification of the five under the Anti-Defection Act, the defectors claimed that they had “merged” their group with the Congress.

Two of them were made Cabinet ministers and two became chief parliamentary secretaries. Sharma’s decision on the defector HJC legislators came after the Supreme Court gave time-bound directions to decide the matter. Bishnoi has already announced that he will move court against the Speaker’s decision on the defectors.

The speaker has even questioned the legitimacy of Bishnoi’s HJC. “The original (HJC) group merged with the Congress. The status of the party can be known from the Election Commission,” Sharma said. Bishnoi hits back: “I got elected (as MP) on the party (HJC) ticket. So was my wife (legislator Renuka Bishnoi).”