Who is Rao Inderjit Singh, ‘plain-speaking’ Union minister taking swipes at Khattar govt over Nuh
Gurugram: Union minister and Haryana stalwart Rao Inderjit Singh has long been known as a straight-talker, whether during his stint in the BJP or the Congress before that. His plain-speaking was in evidence soon after communal clashes broke out in Haryana’s Nuh and Gurugram last week, killing six people in all.
Even as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar pointed towards a “conspiracy” behind the attack on a religious procession carried out by Hindutva groups in Nuh on 31 July, Singh questioned the presence of weapons among participants of the Braj Mandal Yatra carried out by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Matra Shakti Durga Vahini.
Who goes to a yatra with sticks and swords? It is wrong,” said Singh, who is the MP of Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency, of which Nuh is a part.
Subsequently, Singh tweeted a picture of himself with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. In Hindi, he wrote that the two had discussed establishing a Rapid Action Force (RAF) camp in Nuh’s district’s Indri village.
“On the instructions of the home minister, the Haryana government has approved the change of land use for the establishment of the RAF camp. The foundation stone will be laid soon,” he wrote.
This tweet only hinted at Singh’s five-year endeavour to set up the RAF camp. The project had been in limbo for want of change of land use (CLU) and other clearances from the Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana. The long-pending CLU file was reportedly cleared only a day after the eruption of violence in Nuh.
Singh, however, still had plenty to say. At a media interaction this week on the sidelines of a function at the soon-to-be-upgraded Pataudi Railway Station in Gurugram district, he voiced concerns about a communal atmosphere prevailing in the region, suggesting it could tarnish Gurgaon’s reputation as the “Millennium City.”
He also criticised the Khattar government for its purported role in delaying the establishment of an RAF camp in Nuh, claiming that this could have helped stem the violence earlier.
Political insiders who have worked closely with Singh, who was also a minister in the first Manmohan Singh cabinet say that he has always been outspoken— whether he was taking on the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government or the Khattar administration.
“He has always been in the habit of calling a spade a spade and does not sugarcoat things,” said a Congress leader who has observed Rao Inderjit Singh’s politics from close quarters, speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
ThePrint called Rao Inderjit Singh as well as his personal secretary for comment, but did not receive a response.
Here’s a look at Singh’s political career so far, his run-ins with the Khattar government, and the latest flashpoints over Nuh and the proposed RAF camp.
