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Journalism of Courage
Not a stranger to controversy, and again under fire after saying “BJP leaders in Delhi” wouldn’t allow a Congress state government to “run for even six months” if it won in the Haryana Assembly polls, J P Dalal is among the wealthiest politicians in the state who into his first term as BJP MLA was picked for the prime Finance portfolio by the party.
On Wednesday, after a video surfaced of the 68-year-old Jat leader making the claim regarding “our leaders in Delhi”, the Congress widely shared the clip. While former Chief Minister and Congress heavyweight Bhupinder Singh Hooda said it meant the BJP had already admitted defeat, BJP-turned-Congress leader Brijendra Singh labelled Dala’s remarks “shameful” and said it showed that the BJP has “no respect” for elections.
Though Dalal did not react to the Congress criticism, a BJP mandal president of his Loharu Assembly seat and a close aide, Ramphal Sheoran, defended the minister. “His comment was on a lighter note. This is not an issue at all. The Opposition is trying to make an issue out of a non-issue,” Sheoran said, adding that Dalal’s development works for his constituency remained unmatched. “Be it the supply of water for irrigation, availability of fertilisers or employment for the youth,” he said.
In February 2021, Dalal had made news and received widespread flak for “insensitive remarks” about the farmers who died during the agitation against the three farm laws passed by the Centre, which were later scrapped. The rare Jat leader to support the laws, Dalal was at the time the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in the state.
Asked about farmers who had died while sitting at the site of the protest, which lasted a year, Dalal had said: “Had the farmers been at their homes, they would have died there also… Out of 1-2 lakh people, don’t 200 die every six months? Someone dies of a heart attack, someone falls ill.”
As angry farmers burnt his effigies in protest and others attacked him on social media, Dalal claimed his statement was “twisted”. “If anybody was hurt by it, I tender my apology,” he said, while claiming to always work for farmers’ welfare.
Not long after, in April 2021, Dalal accused the Congress of being behind the farmers’ protests and of “misusing the name of kisan”. “(The protesters) are political men from the Congress and a few Communists who, by misusing the name of kisan, indulge in zindabad-murdabad while showing black flags,” Dalal told The Indian Express.
He added that the Congress was tapping into the fact that “everyone’s emotions are attached with the word kisan”. Admitting that “the income of farmers did not increase in the past 60-70 years after Independence”, Dalal said there was a need to look at the shortcomings in previous policies. “I would like to express my gratitude to (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji that he has done what Congress leaders could not do in all these years.”
A civil engineering diploma holder, Dalal worked as a junior engineer in the Haryana Irrigation Department before entering electoral politics. He has come a long way since then, declaring Rs 76 crore in his last election affidavit in 2019, making him the richest among the current state ministers. Most of his assets are immovable properties in Gurgaon valued at Rs 56.7 crore and his declared profession is agriculture.
What propelled Dalal’s rise politically was his proximity to former CM Bansi Lal’s son Surinder Singh, and sources say that this was why when Bansi Lal formed the Haryana Vikas Party in 1996, it was registered in Dalal’s name.
In 2005, Surinder died in a helicopter crash, while serving as a state minister.
In 2009, Dalal contested his first Assembly election, from Loharu, as an Independent candidate, with the backing of Surinder’s wife Kiran Choudhry, who recently switched from the Congress to the BJP. He lost by 621 votes but, importantly, got more votes than sitting Congress MLA and Bansi Lal’s son-in-law Somvir Singh.
In 2014, Dalal joined the BJP and contested from the Loharu Assembly seat again. However, he suffered a narrow defeat a second time, losing to an INLD candidate by less than 2,000 votes.
But the BJP promoted him to positions such as state vice-president and Haryana in-charge of the BJP Kisan Morcha. He was also in-charge for the 2019 Jind Assembly bypoll.
Dalal’s first Assembly win came in 2019, this time against Somvir Singh, the Congress candidate. He was then inducted into the Khattar Cabinet by the BJP and given several portfolios, including Agriculture. In March this year, following a Cabinet reshuffle, Dalal was given the Finance, Town and Country Planning, and Archives portfolios under CM Nayab Singh Saini.
