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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday accused political events in Punjab of “sponsoring” the farmers’ motion that has led to scores of protesters descending upon border areas of the nationwide capital over the past three days and added that his Punjab counterpart, Amarinder Singh, has not responded to date to efforts for a dialogue.
Reacting to Khattar’s remarks later within the day, Amarinder condemned the violence that broke out between police and protesting farmers in Haryana and demanded an apology from the Haryana CM.
Speaking to the media in Gurgaon after presiding over a gathering of the district grievance committee, Khattar stated, “This movement is primarily being sponsored by political parties in Punjab and some organisations there. I have tried several times to talk to the Chief Minister of Punjab over the last 3 days regarding the movement, but he did not speak to me. We dialed 6-7 times, but each time his staff just kept saying we will get it done now, we will get it done in some time.”
“Such a situation has occurred for the first time that a Chief Minister is trying to talk to another and is not able to do so. In the last 6 years, this has happened for the first time. Earlier, when we called, if he (Amarinder) was busy, we would be able to talk in an hour or so…” he stated.
Khattar alleged a political conspiracy within the identify of farmers, and termed this “unfortunate and condemnable”.
Meanwhile, Amarinder lashed out a Khattar and stated he wouldn’t forgive him until the latter issued an apology. “Khattar is lying that he tried calling me earlier and I did not respond. But now, after what he has done to my farmers, I will not speak to him even if he calls me 10 times. Unless he apologises and admits that he did wrong with Punjab’s farmers, I will not forgive him,” Amarinder stated.
Pointing out that he had held a number of discussions with the Prime Minister in addition to Union Home Minister in regards to the problems with farmers, Amarinder stated there was no purpose for him to keep away from cellphone calls from a neighbouring state’s Chief Minister.
He additionally slammed allegations of his involvement in instigating farmers saying, “I am a nationalist to the core, I run a border state and will never do anything to create a law-and-order problem of any kind.”
“I will not take this nonsense from Khattar. Don’t I have better things to do than to incite farmers?” Amarinder stated, including that “sometimes they say it’s Khalistanis who’re managing the protests and sometimes they accuse me of doing it…let them make up their minds”.
— With ENS, Chandigarh
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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