Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is in the eye of a storm over a viral video that purportedly shows him telling his security staff to beat up an “AAP worker” and throw him out of the venue of his Jan Samvad programme in Sirsa.
The incident is said to have occurred Sunday — the second day of Khattar’s three-day Jan Samvad programme in the state’s villages — during which the people share their grievances with the CM and he helps resolve them promptly.
In the video, Khattar is heard speaking about the problem of drugs in Sirsa’s Dabwali area and asking for suggestions to eliminate the menace.
As a Sikh gentleman in the crowd gets on his feet to give suggestions, Khattar notices someone on the other side of the gathering.
“Arrey, rajneeti mat karne do isko. Ye rajneeti karne wala hai, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ka karyakarta hai. Iski pitai karo aur isko bahar le jao (This man is here to do politics. Don’t allow him to do politics here. He is an Aam Aadmi Party worker. Beat him up and throw him out of the venue),” the CM is heard saying in the video, as security persons whisk the man away.
Slamming Khattar, Ashok Tanwar, former Haryana Congress chief and now an AAP leader, told ThePrint Sunday that AAP workers had tried to meet the CM a day earlier to take up the issue of discrepancies in Parivar Pehchan Patras — the family ID cards issued by the Haryana government.
“Our workers wanted to meet Khattar at Khairekan village yesterday, but they were detained by the police. Today, a few of them managed to reach the (Jan Samvad) venue in Sirsa to raise the issue before the CM, but were beaten up,” he alleged.
Tanwar added that when the CM was organising a Jan Sanvad programme, he should allow everyone to raise grievances. He added that AAP workers will continue to ask the CM and other Haryana ministers questions.
ThePrint reached Khattar’s media adviser Amit Arya over phone and WhatsApp with queries about the video but had not received a response at the time of publishing this report. This report will be updated once a response is received.
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‘She has come tutored by someone’
Another video from the same gathering purportedly shows the Haryana CM being rude to a woman telling him that she recently lost her young son to drugs.
Khattar first assures her saying “main tera beta hun na (I am like your son),” but when she doesn’t stop speaking, the CM is heard saying in Hindi that “she has come tutored by someone”.
“Keep quiet and sit down. I am listening to you,” he adds.
The visibly angry woman is later seen on camera telling mediapersons that she is a widow and that she had raised her son alone. He died at the age of 25.
“I came with my grievance that the police are not taking action against the drugs traffickers, but he (Khattar) told me that I have been tutored by someone. I lost my son. Someone tell me, how do I bring back my child,” the woman said, with tears in her eyes. “The CM did not listen to me,” she added.
Deepender Hooda, Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP, tweeted the video of Khattar’s interaction with the woman Sunday and wrote in Hindi: “A widowed mother who lost her young son. A mother, who lost her son to drug trafficking flourishing under the government’s protection. A mother, who just wanted action against the drug traffickers. Just see the kind of communication with that mother. Just see the arrogance and insensitivity! Today is Mother’s Day.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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