Proud cobbler’s son from Haryana in Modi’s cabinet

The cluttered lanes of small-town Ladwa in Haryana’s Kurukshetra head towards a small shoe repair shop with plenty of boot specimen, shoestrings and show soles nailed on the walls to charm customers.

Jyoti Ram, 94, has been repairing and selling boots for decades. This week gave him some special moments to celebrate.

His son Rattan Lal Kataria, a member of Parliament from the Ambala Lok Sabha constituency, was inducted in Narender Modi’s cabinet as a minister of state for Jal Shakti, social justice and empowerment.

His father even today has no qualms about repairing shoes. Ram says it is his work that made him earn a livelihood and help his MP-son become an achiever. His work, he maintains, taught his children to stay grounded and gave them lessons on the dignity of labour.

According to family sources, Ram started repairing shoes in his boyhood. Today, Ram is a proud father, a witness to his son’s phenomenal rise after several failures. Ram recalls how his son in his early teenage got a summons from court after he protested police inaction in a case when his teacher was beaten by goons.

He remembers how Kataria even as a child stood up for justice against odds. It was 37-years ago that Kataria first contested the Assembly election in Haryana. He lost badly but did not lose heart. In 1986, he won the same seat.

Kataria, like incumbent Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, is an RSS ideologue and has worked with Modi as party in-charge in Haryana.

In 1999, he first won the Lok Sabha seat but lost twice to Congress strong woman Kumari Selja, considered close to Sonia Gandhi, in 2004 and 2009. But the Schedule Caste leader bounced back and won the next two Lok Sabha elections from Ambala.

For Kataria, his induction into the Modi cabinet was an out of the blue shot in the arm for the leader.