For first time, Ajay, Abhay sit separately for “Ram-Rami”

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8

The family feud in the INLD has not just remained a political row, but seems to have driven a permanent wedge in the Chautala clan as for the first time ever, Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh Chautala on Thursday accepted greetings of “Ram-Rami” sitting at two separate venues.

“Ram-Rami” is a prominent event observed by the Jat community in Haryana and nearby Rajasthan a day after Diwali when younger people visit their elders in the village, including parents and grand-parents, to seek blessings.

Since former Deputy PM Devi Lal’s time, it has been a tradition in the Chautala clan that all male members would sit on the lawns of their ancestral Tejakhera farmhouse in Sirsa, as the INLD supporters from across Haryana visited them to wish “Ram-Rami” for Diwali festival. However, the scene was entirely different this time, as while Abhay Singh accepted greetings from supporters at the farmhouse, his elder brother Ajay Singh met followers in his Sirsa residence.

Sources said both Ajay Singh as well as his MP son Dushyant Chautala went to the main chowk of Tejakhera village where a statue of Chaudhary Devi Lal stands in the early hours and came back after paying homage to him.

The father-son duo did not visit the Tejakhera farmhouse, owned by patriarch Om Prakash Chautala. 

Hundreds of supporters of  the two camps kept visiting Tejakhera as well as Sirsa through the day.

“The tradition of ‘Ram Rami’ is very old in Chaudhary Devi Lal’s family. Earlier, the family used to accept greetings from people at their ancestral house in Chautala village. However, when the Tejakhera farmhouse was built in the late 1970s when Devi Lal became CM, the venue was shifted there,” said a supporter.

Meanwhile, Dushyant Chautala’s visit to Union Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh’s residence a day before Diwali has added spice to the current family feud. Sources said Dushyant remained closeted with the Union minister for over an hour.

While Rao’s office said it was a courtesy call to greet the minister on Diwali, Dushyant’s father Ajay Singh said meetings between two political leaders always have political meanings.