Haryana Assembly Election 2024: Agniveer, Farmers And Employment Take Centre Stage

These days, Satyapal ‘Fauji’—a retired Army officer—spends most of his days at his buffalo shelter in Lajwana village near Julana in Haryana’s Jind district. He often flips through the family album. The pictures of his son, Sachin, bring a smile to his face.

Sachin, 23, used to wake up every day at dawn to run a circuit around a stadium in Haryana’s Rohtak to train his body for the armed forces. It was a shared dream between the father and the son that Sachin joined the Army.

A scheme launched by the central government shattered that dream. In June 2022, when the Centre announced a four-year short-term recruitment programme called the Agnipath Yojana, Sachin—the sole breadwinner after his father retired—ended his life.

Recalling his last interaction with his son, Satyapal says: “On the evening of June 15, Sachin called me worried and asked, ‘Papa, what do I do now, what is the point of trying for this anymore?’ I told him not to worry and that he would find an alternative job.” Sachin’s voice was shaking so Satyapal decided to visit him the next day. “But he never let the next morning arrive,” he says while looking at a photograph of Sachin from his school days in the family album.

As Haryana awaits the Assembly election results today, the Agnipath Yojana—which has replaced the traditional entrance process for permanent recruitment in the armed forces—has emerged as one of the biggest poll issues.

The anguish of the state’s youth against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme has been biting at the BJP government. Every year, a sizeable population joining the armed forces comes from Haryana. However, this changed two years ago when the recruitment process was altered.

Under the new system, soldiers—known as Agniveers—are being recruited for a period of four years. At the end of the term, 25 per cent of them would be made permanent while the rest would be let go. The announcement came as a rude shock for those preparing for the entrance exams. They felt it was unjust to eliminate the regular recruitment process and the benefits that came with it.

Ahead of the polls, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini in July assented to a 10 per cent horizontal reservation for Agniveers in the recruitment of constables, forest guards and jail wardens, along with incentives and quotas in other posts. He also announced that Agniveers will get arms licences on a priority basis. However, Parghat Singh, a 20-year-old Army aspirant from Jind, feels that the government cheated them by implementing the Agnipath scheme. “We cannot have the same passion for a four-year recruitment as we did for the permanent position. How can we sacrifice everything for such a short term? And tomorrow if one dies within these four years, our families will not even get the same benefits or pension,” he says. 

In a state where many are struggling to find suitable jobs, the youth’s discontent remains high. The situation is worse in the rural parts of Haryana, where people are now choosing to migrate to other countries through illegal methods locally referred to as dunki.

In the narrow lanes of a colony near Patiala Chowk, Jind, Subedar Mahendra Shubhash coaches young aspirants at Bhavishya Sainik Academy for the defence examinations. The academy, also a boarding school, used to witness a footfall of up to 400 students every year from across Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. However, since June 2022, the admissions have dropped to about 150 students a year. 

“The passion and desh bhakti (patriotism) that we used to see among the kids who were willing to sacrifice their life for the country, has been completely missing since the Agnipath scheme was announced. They are demotivated,” he says.

What’s in the Manifestoes?

The Agnipath scheme featured prominently this time in the election manifestoes of both the BJP and the Congress–the two main rivals in Haryana. While the BJP promised government jobs to Agniveers, the Congress promised to overturn the scheme and bring back the old pattern of permanent recruitment to the armed forces. Apart from this, the BJP also promised five lakh jobs, Rs 2,100 per month to women, subsidy on LPG cylinders and incentives for farmers, whereas the Congress has promised a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 to women between the age of 18 and 60, free electricity up to 300 units, legal guarantee for MSP to farmers, reviving the Old Pension Scheme and a state-wide caste survey.

The manifestoes of regional parties such as the Jannayak Janta Party, which is in alliance with the Azad Samaj Party, include a legal guarantee for MSP, assured minimum wages to farmers, 50 per cent reservation for women in all teaching jobs and tax-free two-wheelers, among others. The Indian National Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance promised to clear the backlog of SC/ST vacancies in government jobs, construct homes for SC/ST communities and provide them free education and coaching, free cooking gas and electricity subsidies, among others. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has promised free electricity for domestic units, free medical treatment, free education to people, Rs 1,000 per month to every woman and employment for the youth.

“This is all an eyewash,” says Ishwar Singh, a resident of Kheri Saffa, who has no expectation from any party. “I have seen many elections. Many parties come and go. They come here asking for votes, then they forget us,” he says.

The Dushyant Chautala Factor

Kheri Saffa village is situated about 10 kilometres away from Narwana tehsil of Jind district. It falls under the Uchana Kalan assembly constituency, from where Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) Dushyant Chautala is contesting. In the previous assembly polls, Chautala had emerged as the kingmaker and chose to go with the BJP to form the government.

Ahead of this year’s polls, the former deputy chief minister has been campaigning across Haryana with his alliance partner—Azad Samaj Party’s (Kanshi Ram) Chandrashekhar Azad—to consolidate the Dalit and Jat votes. Their roadshows have drawn huge crowds, thanks to the duo’s popularity among the youth. Despite loud cheers and sloganeering, however, the JJP leader's influence on the ground appears to be eroding and it seems like his voters are still left in a fit of pique.

Sitting outside his house in Karsindhu village, Ramveer reads a newspaper almost ignoring the motorcade of the JJP-ASP alliance as it passes by. On being asked what he thinks of the upcoming election, he responds: “The competition is between the BJP and the Congress. Dushyant is not in the picture. He stood beside the government when they manhandled farmers. It’s difficult to trust him again.”

In all the assembly polls held in Haryana before 2019, the Jat-dominated Uchana Kalan seat has alternated between Congress’ Birendra Singh of the Chhotu Ram family and farmer leader Chaudhary Devi Lal’s clan. In 2014, when Singh was elected as the Hisar MP, his wife Premlata won the seat on a BJP ticket. Chautala, who along with his brother was ousted from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) that year and won the seat in 2019 hopes for a re-election this year. He is fighting against Singh’s son Bijendra Singh of the Congress and former JJP leader Devendra Atri, who’s contesting on a BJP ticket.

Farmers’ Issues Persist

While Sachin prepared for his career in the forces, his elder brother took care of the farm. The harvest has not been very fruitful. But he is dependent on it as he does not have a job. 

In Sonti village in Kurukshetra, Guljar Singh, 32, tills his land, complaining about how most of his harvest is going to waste. “The rains this time have ruined my crops. The government does not see these losses. All they do is make false promises.”

In February this year, a massive showdown took place between farmers and security forces at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana, in which the Haryana Police, on orders of the Manohar Lal Khattar government, lobbed teargas shells and allegedly fired pellets to disperse protesters when they tried to cross the barricades stalling their march to New Delhi.

The farmers’ protest, which first started with a tractor march to the Parliament in November 2021, continues to remain in the spotlight and has become an essential election issue for the agrarian population of Haryana.

Last week, Congress candidate and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda vowed to open the Shambhu border for farmers if his party is voted to power in the Haryana polls. Meanwhile, farmers under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, conducting mahapanchayats across Haryana to push the government to accept their long pending demands. This time, the brunt of it will be faced by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, whom the BJP has fielded from Ladwa assembly constituency in Kurukshetra. Saini was promoted to the chair in March this year as damage control over some of the unilateral decisions taken by then CM Manohar Lal Khattar that caused massive outrage, especially among the farmer community in Haryana.

At the Anaj Mandi in Pipli town of the Ladwa constituency, heaps of grains have been lying out in the sun for days with few buyers in sight. Surender Kumar, 55, complains that he will have to sell his produce at a much lower rate than the guaranteed MSP. “The government was supposed to announce the new rates by now, but they have not. Now we are sleeping here all night to protect our harvest from getting spoilt or stolen,” he says. “Until the government announces new rates, we will have to sell it at a cheaper rate or let our harvest rot or collect dust and animal faeces,” says Gurmukh Singh, 70.

While the deep resentment among farmer communities remains unshaken as the woes continue to grow, by fielding Saini from the Ladwa constituency­—an OBC face on a seat with over 40 per cent OBC population­—the BJP appears to be playing safe. Within the last few months, Saini’s government has taken a number of please-all decisions to overturn the public ire and bid aside the anti-incumbency sentiments. In high-pitched campaigns for the assembly polls, Saini has stressed on how his government has heard the janata and urged people to put faith in him. It is uncertain which way the wind blows for Haryana come result day on October 8 but some believe that Saini may just be a shadow CM while the actual orders still come from Khattar’s team.