Chandigarh, December 28: Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Thursday that he has served a defamation notice to Cooperatives Minister Manish Grover who accused him of playing a key role in the violence that erupted in Rohtak during the Jat agitation in 2016.
Grover had alleged that Hooda could not digest party’s loss in the 2014 assembly polls from Rohtak and in the garb of the Jat stir, he got his men to target shops of a particular community to avenge his defeat.
“I have served a defamation notice. I will be seeking Rs 50 crore as damages for Grover’s false and baseless utterances aimed to tarnish my image,” Hooda told reporters here.
Rohtak is considered as a stronghold of the Hooda family, but in the 2014 elections, the assembly seat was won by the BJP.
Hooda hit out at the BJP government in the state alleging that it had failed on all fronts.
He said before coming to power they made tall promises, but failed to fulfill them.
Giving some examples of such “unfulfilled promises”, Hooda said, “They promised to set up two institutes on AIIMS pattern, international level universities, broadband facilities in villages, extend loan at nominal rates of interest to small traders, but none of these promises were kept.”
“They are experts in drumbeating whereas performance on ground remains non-existent,” he claimed.
On Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s recent claims that corruption in the state reduced to 19 per cent from 51 per cent in 2014, the senior Congress leader wondered “as to where the chief minister got this figure from”.
He promised that if the Congress comes to power, loans of farmers, taken from cooperative and nationalised banks, will be waived.
“Within six hours of the Congress forming the government, this decision will be taken,” he claimed.
Hooda further added that “within 12 hours, we will announce the decision to increase old age pension to Rs 3,000 (from the present Rs 2,000)”.
Replying to a question about the INLD, the Congress leader said earlier also he had maintained that the party will be “decimated” and the recent split in the outfit had proved that.
“Everyone knows that the INLD has been playing second fiddle to the BJP. They already stood exposed before the public and now with the split, their own leaders have started saying the same thing. By the time of polls, this party will be completely finished,” he claimed.
Source Business Standards
