With more than 20,000 contractual employees in Haryana losing the jobs after the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) set aside state government’s “employee regularisation policy”, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) on Monday said the Congress should get the blame as then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government regularised employees in order to get political mileage from it in 2014 Assembly polls.

Addressing a Press conference, leader of the Opposition, Abhay Singh Chautala said on the eve of the elections in 2014, the then Congress government led by Hooda had regularised those who had been working on ad hoc, contract, daily wages and work charge basis in spite of the contrary legal advice against the same.

He said then ruling Congress had gone ahead with its decision in order derive some political advantage in the forthcoming Assembly polls. “The HC judgment, commenting upon this form of employment, has virtually indicted the Congress government by saying, “The courts can take judicial notice of the fact that such employment is sought and given directly for various illegal considerations including money,” Chautala said.

The INLD leader said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government also paid little attention to this and compounded its culpability by not only putting up a weak defence in the High Court but also doing nothing to find a way out for those hapless employees.

The Haryana government has already decided to move the Supreme Court against the HC decision with the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar maintaining that despite the state government’ strong plea in the high court, it was set aside due to some shortcomings in the policy.

Meanwhile, Chautala alleged there is lawlessness in the state with rise in crimes in all walks of life. He alleged the BJP government is using law enforcing agencies its tool to victimise political opponents.

Chautala gave the example of the family of Manoj Wadhwa of Karnal who had contested against CM Khattar during the 2014 Assembly polls. “His (Wadhwa’s) younger brother was apprehended carrying Rs 16.42 lakhs during demonetisation. However, when the name of the family became public the police was prevailed upon by the government to register a case of recovery of Rs 70 lakhs.

Unable to bear the pressure, he (Wadhwa’s brother) committed suicide. But instead of booking those who were the cause of abetment, the police chose to book the victim’s family,” he said.