Manohar Lal Khattar meets Amit Shah, hints action at farm protest sites

“There is no objection if the farmers’ movement goes on peacefully. But the inappropriate incidents, especially against women, are very worrying. These incidents are being opposed locally as well. Haryana government will not allow law and order to deteriorate under any circumstances. The Union Home Minister has also assured action in this regard,” Khattar told media persons in Delhi.

Khattar and Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij met the party central leadership on the day the BJP-JJP alliance in Haryana completed 600 days in office.

While he did not elaborate on the incidents, sources said, Khattar was likely referring to the alleged gangrape of a 26-year-old woman from West Bengal, who was participating in the farmers’ protest at Tikri border, and who died of Covid-19 on April 30.

On Thursday, a 40-year-old man from Haryana’s Jhajjar district succumbed to burn injuries in the wee hours and his relatives alleged that he was set on fire by four men who are part of the farmers’ protest at the Tikri border.

In a statement issued late on Thursday, the state government said that Khattar met Shah in New Delhi “and discussed the farmers’ movement in Haryana and apprised him about the incidents”.

Haryana BKU president Gurnam Singh Chaduni, meanwhile termed Khattar’s statements as “absurd”. In a video statement, he said what bigger proof can be there that the agitation is going on peacefully for the last over seven months “despite 500 of our brothers losing their lives”.