By Manoj Kumar

Chandigarh: The appointment of Sanjay Dutt as Haryana Congress in-charge has brought a renewed focus on strengthening the party organisation at the grassroots, with particular emphasis on energising booth-level workers and agents. However, the larger challenge before the party remains the task of addressing internal differences among its senior leaders.

With the next Assembly election still some distance away, the Congress is seeking to use the intervening period to rebuild its organisational network, reconnect with workers and strengthen its presence at the booth level. The strategy assumes greater significance following the electoral setbacks suffered by the Opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar and West Bengal, where organisational weaknesses and leadership coordination have emerged as important political concerns.

The Haryana Congress appears keen to ensure that it does not enter the next electoral battle relying primarily on prominent leaders and their individual support bases. Instead, the party wants an active cadre capable of maintaining regular contact with voters and taking the Congress’s political message to the grassroots.

Yet, the effectiveness of this strategy will ultimately depend on whether the party can address the factionalism that became particularly visible during the 2024 Haryana Assembly election. Differences among senior leaders and competing political camps had often overshadowed the broader campaign, raising questions about coordination and collective leadership.

Dutt’s appointment therefore comes at a crucial juncture. His responsibility extends beyond rebuilding the organisation. He will also have to establish greater coordination among the party’s senior leaders and ensure that different factions work towards a common political objective.

A strong booth-level organisation can give the Congress a significant advantage, but only if workers receive a consistent political message from the leadership. Any disconnect between senior leaders could once again leave the grassroots cadre confused about the party’s priorities and electoral strategy.

The experience of neighbouring Punjab also offers a warning. Internal differences, competing leadership ambitions and disagreements over political strategy can become increasingly difficult to manage as an election approaches. For the Haryana Congress, preventing such differences from reaching a critical stage will be essential if the party wants to convert its organisational efforts into electoral gains.

The current grassroots drive could help restore confidence among workers who felt marginalised or inactive during previous election cycles. But organisational expansion alone may not be enough. Differences over leadership roles, political strategy and, eventually, ticket distribution could test the unity of the party as the election draws closer.

Dutt’s success will therefore be judged on two fronts: how effectively he rebuilds the Congress organisation from the booth level and, more importantly, whether he can bring the party’s competing leadership camps onto a common platform.

For the Haryana Congress, the challenge is no longer merely to build a larger cadre. It is to ensure that the cadre sees a united leadership, a clear political strategy and a common electoral goal.

The coming months will indicate whether Sanjay Dutt can achieve that balance or whether internal differences once again overshadow the Congress’s efforts to rebuild its organisation in Haryana.

By Manoj Kumar

Chandigarh: The Congress’s renewed emphasis on strengthening its grassroots organisation in Haryana comes at a time when the party faces a more fundamental challenge—resolving competing leadership ambitions within its state units.

During the last Haryana Assembly election, the party’s leadership question was widely seen as a major source of tension, with three prominent camps associated with former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Sirsa MP and former Union Minister Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha Memmber Randeep Singh Surjewala representing different strands of the state leadership. The differences over leadership and political space became particularly significant during the election campaign.

The departure of senior leader Kiran Choudhry from the Congress also underlined the seriousness of the leadership tensions within the state unit. Her exit, followed by her move to the BJP, was another setback for the party at a time when it was preparing for the Assembly election.

The Congress now has an opportunity to learn from that experience. With Sanjay Dutt taking charge as the Haryana in-charge, the party’s organisational rebuilding exercise will have to go hand in hand with efforts to create greater cohesion among its senior leaders.

The issue is not merely about deciding who will lead the party. It is also about ensuring that different leadership groups do not operate as separate political centres when an election approaches. A disciplined and energetic booth-level cadre can be effective only when it receives a clear and unified political message from the state leadership.

The developments in Punjab make the issue even more relevant for the Congress high command. Differences involving senior leaders, including former Chief Minister and Current Member of Parliament Charanjit Singh Channi and Member of Parliament and Punjab State president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, have kept the question of leadership and political direction in focus as the party prepares for the next Assembly election.

For the Congress, the concern is whether it is repeating in Punjab the same mistake that hurt its prospects in Haryana—allowing leadership differences to remain unresolved until the electoral battle is already underway.

The party cannot afford to postpone the question indefinitely. Leadership clarity does not necessarily mean announcing a chief ministerial face years before an election; it means establishing a mechanism through which competing leaders agree to work within a common strategy and accept collective decision-making.

The Congress has shown that such political coordination is possible. In Karnataka, the party managed to navigate competing leadership claims and maintain a working arrangement between Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar after the 2023 Assembly election. While differences did not disappear, the party leadership succeeded in preventing them from becoming an immediate organisational crisis.

That experience offers a possible lesson for Haryana and Punjab. The Congress does not necessarily need to eliminate differences among ambitious leaders—political parties naturally contain competing aspirations. What it needs is a system capable of managing those differences before they damage the organisation.

For Haryana, Sanjay Dutt’s task is therefore larger than simply building a booth-level cadre. He will have to persuade the different leadership camps that organisational strengthening and electoral preparation cannot succeed if the party remains divided at the top.

Punjab presents a similar challenge. If the Congress wants to regain political space, it will have to demonstrate to its workers and voters that its senior leaders can put collective electoral strategy above individual leadership ambitions.

The lesson from Haryana’s previous Assembly election should be clear: a strong cadre cannot compensate indefinitely for a divided leadership.

With elections still some distance away, the Congress has time to address the problem. But that window may narrow rapidly once candidate selection and campaign politics begin. The party’s central leadership will therefore have to act early—before internal leadership competition again becomes the defining story of its state units.

Chandigarh | July 09, 2026: Fortis Mohali and Intuitive, a global technology leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish India’s first Total Program Observation (TPO) site in a non-metro city. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of Abhijit Singh , Head – Strategic Business Unit (SBU), Fortis Mohali; Dr. Bishnu Panigrahi , Group Head – Medical Strategy and Operations, Fortis Healthcare; Glenn Vavoso , Senior Vice President and President, Intuitive Asia Pacific; and Rohitt Mahajan , Vice President and General Manager, Intuitive India.

The collaboration reflects a shared vision to support the next phase of robotic-assisted surgery in India, with a focus on programme maturity, structured training, patient safety and multidisciplinary readiness. The TPO site at Fortis Hospital Mohali will create a peer-to-peer learning platform for healthcare professionals to observe how an established robotic programme is built, governed and sustained in a real-world Indian healthcare setting.

Fortis Hospital Mohali has developed a multidisciplinary robotic-assisted surgery programme across specialties including gynaecology, gastrointestinal oncology, urology and head and neck surgery. The hospital has completed more than 3,600 robotic-assisted procedures, supported by 18 robotic surgeons and two da Vinci surgical systems. Serving patients across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and neighbouring regions, Fortis Hospital Mohali offers a valuable non-metro reference point for institutions looking to strengthen robotic-assisted surgery programmes in similar healthcare settings.

Through the TPO site, visiting surgeons, care teams, hospital administrators and executive leaders will have the opportunity to engage in structured peer-to-peer learning with an established robotic-assisted surgery programme. Beyond clinical observation, participants will gain exposure to the broader elements that support programme maturity, including surgeon training pathways, multidisciplinary team coordination, operating room workflows, patient safety processes, programme governance, executive alignment, financial planning and long-term service development.

Sharing a global perspective, Glenn Vavoso, Senior Vice President and President, Intuitive Asia Pacific, said, “Across the world, we are seeing healthcare systems increasingly focused on building robotic-assisted surgery programmes that are sustainable, scalable and integrated into broader models of clinical excellence. Total Program Observation sites support this by enabling healthcare teams to observe established programmes and apply relevant learnings within their own institutions. Fortis Hospital Mohali’s inclusion in this global network is a testament to India’s growing leadership in robotic-assisted surgery and its commitment to advancing high-quality, minimally invasive care through collaboration, education and peer learning.”

Commenting on India’s evolving robotic-assisted surgery landscape, Rohitt Mahajan, Vice President and General Manager, Intuitive India, said, “Robotic-assisted surgery in India is entering a new phase of growth, where success will be defined not just by technology adoption, but by building sustainable, high-quality surgical programmes. Fortis Hospital Mohali’s recognition as India’s first Total Program Observation site in a non-metro city reflects the growing maturity of the ecosystem and the important role experienced institutions can play in advancing best practices, strengthening capabilities and expanding access to minimally invasive care across the country.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Abhijit Singh, Head – Strategic Business Unit (SBU), Fortis Mohali, said, “Robotic-assisted surgery continues to expand across India, healthcare institutions are increasingly looking to understand how to build sustainable programmes around the technology. Total Program Observation supports this need by enabling structured peer-to-peer learning across clinical, operational and leadership functions. It also reflects a shared commitment to strengthening training, sharing best practices in programme governance and safety processes, and helping hospitals build the capabilities required to deliver advanced minimally invasive care with greater consistency.”

This collaboration is expected to strengthen India’s robotic-assisted surgery ecosystem by creating a practical learning platform for hospitals seeking to build or enhance their own programmes, particularly beyond major metropolitan centres.

About Intuitive India:

Intuitive Surgical India Pvt Ltd, the subsidiary of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISRG), is a global technology leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS). Intuitive India brings more than two decades of leadership in advanced robotics, including the da Vinci surgical system. A growing community of passionate and committed Indian surgeons are adopting the solutions in indication areas including gynaecology, urology, general surgery, and surgical oncology, among others. Today, India has over 2000 robotic-assisted trained surgeons and over 250 da Vinci systems installed across major private and government hospitals.

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that the biggest challenge facing Punjab today is the growing menace of drugs. Drug addiction has destroyed countless families and left many mothers grieving the loss of their children. The youth, who are the nation’s greatest strength, are increasingly falling prey to substance abuse. He asserted that the day a BJP government is formed in Punjab, drug traffickers will be compelled to leave the state.

The Chief Minister was addressing the State-Level Conference organized by the Dhanak community in Ludhiana on the occasion of the 628th Birth Anniversary of Sant Kabir on Sunday. On the occasion, he announced a grant of Rs. 11 lakh for the construction of Sant Kabir Bhawan in Ludhiana.

Extending his heartfelt greetings and best wishes on the birth anniversary of Sant Shiromani Kabir Das Maharaj, the Chief Minister paid his humble respects to the great saint. He said that when society was engulfed in the darkness of superstition, blind faith, untouchability and rigid orthodoxy, Sant Kabir emerged as a beacon of light, showing humanity a new path through his powerful teachings.

Shri Nayab Singh Saini said that Sant Kabir’s teachings represent a movement to spread the message of social harmony, equality and humanity to every household. He described Sant Kabir as the soul of India and one of the country’s greatest social reformers, who united society through the ideals of compassion and human dignity.

His life was devoted to the pursuit of truth and the fearless rejection of falsehood. He strongly challenged the social evils and rigid customs prevailing across religions. His revolutionary ideas continue to guide society even today. The Chief Minister also noted that Sant Kabir’s verses have been accorded a place of honour in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He said the Haryana Government is committed to carrying forward Sant Kabir’s legacy by celebrating Sant Prakash Parv in every district, thereby promoting his message of equality, harmony and social reform.

The Chief Minister said that Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya adopted Sant Kabir’s message of universal welfare, equality and the upliftment of the last person in society, and the BJP is committed to carrying forward this vision. He said that under the previous Congress government in Haryana, many poor families had received only allotment papers for residential plots, whereas the present government has ensured actual possession of plots for nearly 20,000 such beneficiaries. He added that families who were yet to receive the benefit are being allotted 100-square-yard residential plots and linked with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to enable the construction of permanent houses. In urban areas, economically weaker families have been provided 30-square-yard plots, while more than 7,200 flats have been allotted in Sonipat, Gurugram and Faridabad. He further said that under the Lado Lakshmi Yojana, eligible women are being provided Rs. 2,100 per month, LPG cylinders are being made available to beneficiaries at Rs. 500, people are receiving the benefits of the Ayushman Chirayu Yojana, all crops are being procured at the Minimum Support Price (MSP), and vegetables have also been brought under the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana to ensure better returns for farmers.

Criticising the Punjab Government, the Chief Minister said that it had misled people with false promises and failed to fulfil its commitments. He alleged that law and order in the state had deteriorated significantly. He expressed confidence that once a BJP government is formed in Punjab under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, it will restore law and order by following the ideals of Sant Kabir and create employment opportunities for the youth.

Shri Nayab Singh Saini said that the BJP functions with clear intentions and a policy of putting the nation first. The Chief Minister said that the principles of equality preached by Sant Kabir were enshrined as legal rights in the Constitution by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He further said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has launched numerous welfare schemes and policies based on the guiding principle of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas” for the upliftment of every section of society. He added that over the past eleven-and-a-half years, Haryana has established a transparent system of governance that has directly benefited the people.

The Chief Minister, citing Dr. B. R. Ambedkar,  said that the chains of social inequality and oppression could only be broken through the power of education. While battles fought with weapons may yield temporary victories, knowledge brings lasting transformation and lays the foundation for a truly empowered society.

CM Sh. Nayab Saini called upon everyone to follow the path of social harmony shown by Sant Kabir and imbibe the principles of education and organisation advocated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, thereby contributing actively to the nation-building process.

Among those present on the occasion were Satish Khundia, Prof. Jai Narayan, District President Ranjit Dhiman, State General Secretary Anil Sareen, former MP S. Amrik Singh, Rakhi Aggarwal, Dr. Kanika Jindal, along with several party office-bearers and distinguished citizens.

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat has become a unique platform for connecting with citizens, inspiring not only millions across India but also listeners in several countries around the world. He said the programme has emerged as a powerful medium of communication that encourages public participation in nation-building and highlights inspiring stories from across the country.

The Chief Minister was listening to the latest edition of the Prime Minister’s monthly Mann Ki Baat programme along with the gathering in Ludhiana, Punjab, on Sunday, reaffirming the spirit of public engagement and shared national commitment.

He said that despite being on the second day of his official visit to the East African island nation of Seychelles, the Prime Minister addressed the people of the country through Mann Ki Baat broadcast on All India Radio.

The Chief Minister said that in today’s programme, the Prime Minister encouraged citizens to promote sports, adopt natural farming, conserve every drop of water, and embrace the spirit of Vocal for Local. He added that the Haryana Government has already been working in these directions. Haryana’s sports persons have brought laurels to the nation, while the state’s farmers continue to make significant contributions to the Central food grain pool. Farmers are also being encouraged to diversify towards horticulture and other high-value crops. The state government is making sustained efforts to promote water conservation and encourage the adoption of natural farming practices.

Sh. Nayab Singh Saini further said that during times of international crisis, the Prime Minister had appealed to citizens to refrain from purchasing gold and to conserve petrol, and the impact of that appeal is clearly visible today. People have increasingly started using public transport for commuting. This reflects the public’s wholehearted acceptance of the Prime Minister’s message, and such collective efforts will further strengthen the process of nation-building.

The Chief Minister said that Mann Ki Baat covers issues of social, economic, and cultural significance. It also serves as an important platform for communicating government policies to citizens while understanding their feedback. He described Mann Ki Baat as a powerful medium of dialogue between Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the people of India. Through this programme, inspiring stories of positive initiatives, social innovation, and public participation from across the country are brought to the forefront, creating a sense of optimism and strengthening the spirit of social harmony.