ranjeet singh jamwal
CHANDIGARH, 5 JUNE: Supporters of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda feel the Congress leader is not being given due appreciation for the progress and development he has brought about in the state.
While the chief minister believes "Haryana is miles ahead" of Gujarat, whose chief minister, Mr Narendra Modi, hogs the limelight all the time for the progress the western state has made, Mr Hooda&’s supporters rue the fact that he has not been given due appreciation for the rapid-fire progress and for making the northern state "number one".
A section of Congress leaders in Haryana feel the party&’s Central leadership has not projected the achievements of Haryana under Mr Hooda’s leadership while BJP leaders keep praising Mr Modi. Veteran BJP leader L K Advani has further triggered debate on "chief minister number one" by praising Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan vis-a-vis his Gujarat counterpart even as Mr Hooda’s supporters believe he deserves the "number one" tag.
No surprise that Mr Modi&’s state being "way behind Haryana" regularly finds mention in Mr Hooda&’s speeches as he quotes facts and figures to support his claim. "The progress of any state can be assessed by four parameters ~ per capita income, per capita investment, per capita plan budget and resource mobilisation. Haryana is ahead in all these while Gujarat is way behind Haryana," Mr Hooda said on Tuesday.
He said according to the Planning Commission’s report, Haryana has achieved resource mobilisation of 192 per cent during the 11th Five Year Plan as compared to 95 per cent at national level and 96.5 per cent in Gujarat. Per capita milk production in Gujarat is as low as 400 grams whereas it is 750 grams in Haryana, Mr Hooda said.
The Congress leaders in Haryana feel Gujarat is getting more attention than Haryana due to Mr Modi&’s aggressive marketing of his achievements. To counter this, the Hooda government has been highlighting its model of development to prove their point that Gujarat, which is showcased as the ideal state and destination for big bucks investment, is actually behind Haryana.
"People talk about development in Gujarat but, in fact, Haryana is ahead of Gujarat in 50 areas of development and is the second largest contributor of food grains to the Central pool. Gujarat is at number six in per capita income, whereas Haryana is ahead of several big states," Mr Hooda said recently.
As Mr Modi has strong presence on social media, Mr Hooda also wants to take on the tech-savvy Gujarat CM and has ventured into cyberspace by launching a website to share his ideas, vision, policies and achievements.
The Opposition, however, has drawn attention to the fact that big industrial houses, including automobile giant Maruti-Suzuki which has had its base in Haryana&’s Gurgaon for nearly three decades, are going for multimillion dollars investments in Gujarat. They blame Mr Hooda&’s policy for big investors’ increasing preference for Gujarat over Haryana.