Speak, clarify, regret: Haryana CM Khattar’s quote uncourtly

While he has emerged as a leader in his own right since he first emerged on the scene, virtually unknown outside Haryana, as the CM in October 2014, on this one front, Khattar keeps tripping.

It was because of his performance that the BJP repeated him as CM despite the party not landing a majority in 2019, forcing it to seek out an alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party. In the 2019 elections, almost the entire Haryana BJP Cabinet lost, barring Khattar and Anil Vij.

Soon after he became the CM for the first time, in the days following the Dadri lynching of a man allegedly over beef, Khattar had told The Indian Express in an interview: “Muslim rahein, magar iss desh mein beef khaana chhodna hi hoga unko. Yahan ki manyata hai gau (Muslims are welcome to live here, but in this country, they will have to stop eating beef. The cow is a matter of faith in this country).”

After the central BJP leadership distanced itself from his remarks, Khattar expressed “regret” if “anyone or any community has felt hurt”.

In November 2018, speaking at a function, the CM stirred an uproar when, after saying that “80-90%” of cases of rape and eve-teasing happened between acquaintances, he added: “Kaafi samay ke liye ikathe ghoomte hain, ek din anban ho gai, uss din utha karke FIR karwa dete hain, isne mujhe rape kiya (They are friends for a long time, then, one day, there is an argument, an FIR is lodged, and a complaint is made of rape).”

As leaders such as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and senior Haryana Congress leader Randeep Surjewala objected, Khattar said: “Maine sehmati nahin kaha, maine ‘between known‘ kaha (I didn’t say that what happens, happens with consent. I said it happens between acquaintances). It’s not something that is my opinion, it is a fact borne out by investigations… Don’t bring politics into it.”

In August 2019, soon after Article 370 was abrogated in J&K, Khattar joked: “Some people are now saying that as Kashmir is ‘open’, brides will be brought from there.” The occasion was an event to discuss Haryana sex ratio, which is skewed against females, and the CM went on to say that such “disbalance” was not good for society.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, among others, criticised Khattar, calling his remarks “despicable”. Later, Khattar posted a full video of the event as clarification, where he also went on to talk about daughters being “our pride”.

In September 2019, Khattar threatened to chop off the neck of a leader of his own party, who placed a silver crown on the CM’s head at an event. Khattar said later that he was angry as he had made it clear to party workers that he was against the culture of such gifts.

A month later, after Sonia Gandhi returned as interim Congress president, as the Congress failed to come up with another name in three months of search, Khattar quipped: “Khoda pahaad nikli chuhiya, voh bhi mari hui (So many expectations, and such a damp squib).”

An incensed Congress demanded an apology from him.

In January 2020, addressing an election rally in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, Khattar suggested that what Delhi people had done by electing Arvind Kejriwal was similar to giving “bandar ke haath mein ustra (a razor in the hands of a monkey)”.

In October 2021, amidst the long agitation over farm laws, Khattar suggested that there was a need for more farmer organisations to take on the ones sitting in protest. Speaking at a meeting of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, he said: “Unko volunteer banao aur phir jagah-jagah Sathe Sathyam Samacharet (roughly, tit for tat).”

With flak again coming his way, Khattar said what he implied was “self-defence”. “I withdraw that statement. I do not want the law and order situation in Haryana to be disrupted.”

In April this year, during another leg of the Jan Samvad programme, Khattar, while responding to comments on the delay in holding the Haryana Police constables’ recruitment exam due to a stay from court, said: “The issue will be resolved. There is a judge, there is some issue with him. We will fix that.”

A day later, he withdrew his remarks, expressing regret and saying “it was an aswabhavik si tippani (uncharacteristic comment)”, which he should not have made. “I respect the courts.”