A political storm is brewing in Haryana after Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda condemned the BJP government for what he calls a blatant assault on protest rights amid MGNREGA rollback fury. From Chandigarh, Hooda, a seasoned Parliamentarian, warned that such authoritarian moves signal peril for democracy, where voicing dissent should be sacred.
The trigger: scrapping MGNREGA and slashing 14 lakh BPL cards, fueling Congress protests across nine districts. But authorities preempted with denials via notices and house arrests of leaders in Faridabad to Ambala. Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib’s arrest and custody stint exemplifies the overreach, Hooda charged, insisting youth activism is democracy’s core, not criminality.
‘When BJP was opposition, they protested freely; now they fear the same,’ Hooda observed, based on 22 years’ experience. Haryana Congress president Rao Narendra Singh’s online salvo rallied support: ‘Peaceful protest crushing shows BJP’s public phobia. Houses can’t cage ideas—we fight on with Constitution’s might.’
This saga reveals Haryana’s polarized landscape, where welfare debates devolve into detentions. As Congress leaders vow unbroken resistance, the episode raises alarms about eroding democratic norms, compelling a reflection on power’s accountability to the people it serves.