Gurugram: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is facing criticism from the Congress for letting sexual harassment-accused minister Sandeep Singh answer a sports-related query in the state assembly Tuesday and then allegedly intimidating Jhajjar Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal for questioning the move.
Sandeep Singh gave up the portfolio of state sports minister in January last year after a junior athletics coach accused him of sexual harassment. Bhukkal, on 27 February, raised a query in the assembly about sports facilities in Jhajjar and received a short answer from Singh that “the answer is on the table”. Bhukkal then said he was no longer the sports minister. However, Khattar supported Singh’s response, saying he was a “respectable” cabinet member and warning Bhukkal of “consequences”.
The CM said in the assembly, “Sandeep ji mere mantrimandal ke sammaniye saathi hain. Mein apni sarkaar ke kisi bhi mantri ko keh sakta hu jawab dene ke liye. Aapne ye kaha ye uchit nahi hai. Aap iss prakar ki… mein shabad prayog karna nahi chahta… anayatha inn chhezo ke parinaam acchhe nahi hotey hain. (Sandeep Ji is a respected companion of my cabinet. I can ask any member of my cabinet to answer your questions. What you said isn’t done. I don’t want to use that word. Otherwise, the consequences of these things won’t be good).” Bhukkal, meanwhile, kept repeating that Singh was no longer the sports minister.
Earlier, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta had told Bhukkal that the government could ask any minister to answer a question that an MLA asked.
Deepender Singh Hooda, a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, posted a video of Khattar’s response to Bhukkal on X, saying, “What kind of arrogant language is Khattar using to threaten a woman MLA? The Haryana CM is intimidating MLA Geeta Bhukkal on the floor of the assembly for merely referring to the name of a minister accused of sexual harassment. Why? What’s Geeta’s fault? The people will not respond well to such arrogant behaviour.”
“इन चीजों के परिणाम अच्छे नहीं होते है”
ये किस अहंकारी भाषा में खट्टर साहब एक महिला विधायक को धमका रहे हैं? महिलाओं के शोषण के आरोपी मंत्री संदीप सिंह के नाम लेने मात्र से हरियाणा के मुख्यमंत्री खुलेआम विधानसभा में विधायक गीता भुक्कल को धमकी दे रहे है – क्यों? क्या क़सूर था गीता… pic.twitter.com/fIDZjYpHyb
— Deepender S Hooda (@DeependerSHooda) February 28, 2024
Chitra Sarwara, a Congress leader from Ambala Cantt who joined the party with her father — former minister Nirmal Singh — after quitting the Aam Aadmi Party, demanded an apology from the CM for saying the “consequences won’t be good”.
Sarwara, in a post on X Wednesday, said, “The consequences of what is happening in Haryana, a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won’t be good. The consequences of the birth of a girl child, of raising one’s voice for one’s rights, fighting for self-respect, and asking questions to the ruling dispensation are not good in Haryana today.”
भाजपा शासित हरियाणा में "इन बातों के परिणाम अच्छे नहीं होते… "
'बेटी' पैदा होने के…
अपने अधिकारों की अवाज उठाने के…
आत्मसम्मान की लड़ाई लड़ने के…
सत्ता पक्ष से सवाल करने के…
लेकिन सत्ता धारियों को याद रहे कि महिला अपमान और दमन के परीणाम भी अच्छे नहीं होते। pic.twitter.com/V6J4SRfjT1
— Chitra Sarwara चित्रा सरवारा (@ChitraSarwara) February 28, 2024
She said Bhukkal, a Dalit MLA and senior leader of the Congress, wanted to know who to ask supplementary questions since Singh was no longer the sports minister. “When, why and how did our chief minister link that innocuous question with Sandeep Singh’s honour? And he spoke to Geeta Bhukkal ji most disrespectfully. We condemn this behaviour and demand an apology from the CM,” she added.
Bhukkal told ThePrint Thursday that she was pained by how the CM treated her despite her seniority and despite her not being at fault. She was the cabinet minister for education during the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government. “I am not in the habit of playing the woman or Dalit card. But even as a senior assembly member, I deserved a better deal,” she said.
“Sandeep Singh is facing a criminal trial for sexually assaulting a woman coach, who happens to be from my assembly constituency. When the allegations surfaced, the government said it had taken away the sports department from him,” she added.
“When I asked my question during zero hour Tuesday, Singh just said the answer was on the table. I had a supplementary question, so I told the speaker my question was about the sports department, and Singh was not the minister. However, the CM took umbrage and said what he said,” said Bhukkal.
Khattar’s chief media coordinator, Sudesh Kataria, said the Congress MLA was fully aware of the rules that the CM could ask any of his ministers to answer a question asked during zero-hour. There was no discrepancy, he added.
“The CM even told her that she knew this practice because she has, in the past, been in the government. He explained to the MLA concerned what the Speaker had already explained,” said Kataria.
Also read: Haryana minister Sandeep Singh seeks anticipatory bail as woman coach accuses him of rape attempt
The case against Sandeep Singh
In December 2022, a junior athletics coach in the Haryana sports department alleged that Singh, then sports minister, called her to his official residence in Chandigarh in July 2022 and tried to force himself on her. The woman had accused him of a similar act in March 2022.
Singh, at the time, denied the allegations but said he was giving up the sports portfolio after police filed an FIR against him at the Sector 26 police station in Chandigarh.
Singh is now facing a criminal trial in a Chandigarh court where the police filed their chargesheet on 25 August last year, saying the minister “appears” to have sexually harassed and assaulted the woman athlete.
“From the investigation conducted, so far, offences under (IPC) sections 342 (wrongfully confine any person), 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman), 354-A (sexual harassment against a woman when there is a physical contact and advances that involve explicit sexual gestures; or demand or proposition), 354-B (assault or criminal force on any woman to disrobe or compel her to be naked), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) appear to have been committed by the accused,” the chargesheet said.
What Bhukkal asked
Bhukkal’s question had two parts. The first was whether sports stadiums in villages in her assembly constituency, Jhajjar, were in poor condition.
The second was whether there was any proposal to provide basic facilities like tracks, boundary walls, drinking water, equipment and toilets in the stadiums of the 11 villages she named, and if so, the timeline for providing these facilities.
The government’s written reply answered the first part in the negative. But, in response to the second part, it provided details of the estimates prepared for the work on sports facilities and the time it would take to execute that work. It also said the government had already provided 27 gram panchayats with sports equipment after it received 40 applications from the Jhajjar district.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)