CHANDIGARH: Congress workers protesting in Haryana on Tuesday over the demand for regularisation of Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN) workers were stopped by police while marching towards chief minister Nayab Singh Saini’s residence, with water cannons used to disperse the protesters.The protest was organised by the Congress as part of its campaign against the BJP-led state government, with the party demanding regularisation of contractual HKRN workers and raising the issue of job security for thousands of employees.The protesters sought to march towards the chief minister’s residence, but police stopped them before they could enter the high-security area around the CM’s residence.Tuesday’s protest gave Congress another opportunity to combine the employment issue with its wider attack on the BJP government.The party maintained that the demand for regularisation of HKRN workers was not merely an employment issue but concerned the future of thousands of young people working on contractual arrangements.For the government, however, allowing protesters to reach the CM’s residence would have raised a major security concern.Police therefore stopped the march well before the protesters could reach the designated high-security area.The use of water cannons is likely to give the Opposition fresh political ammunition, with Congress leaders expected to portray the action as evidence of the government’s intolerance towards dissent.The BJP, on the other hand, is likely to frame the police deployment as a necessary security measure to prevent protesters from breaching the restricted zone.With the September 8 confrontation, the Congress’s street campaign against the Saini government has acquired a sharper edge, and the police barricades outside the CM’s residence have become the latest symbol of the increasingly combative BJP-Congress politics in Haryana.
