CHANDIGARH: The war of words between chief ministers of Congress-led Punjab and BJP-headed Haryana, over the issue of agitation by farmers and the use of force by
Haryana Police against them, continued on Sunday.
Punjab CM Capt
Amarinder Singh said his
Haryana counterpart,
Manohar Lal Khattar, could have used official channels or called up on his mobile phone, rather than making calls to his attendant, if he really wanted to talk to him on the issue, while the latter said the Punjab government would be responsible in case the
Covid-19 situation got bad in the state, especially in Sonipat where thousands of protesters had gathered. “We have cleared our stand. The Centre has directed state governments to avoid any kind of gatherings in their states. (When) we decided we shall not allow any kind of gathering, (then) how come CM Amarinder Singh allowed farmers to agitate for two months?” Khattar said.
The Punjab CM said if Khattar was so concerned about farmers spreading Covid in Haryana, he should not have stopped them within the state, but should have allowed them to move quickly to Delhi.
Amarinder trashed call records released by Khattar as “complete fraud” and said flaunting a page of his own office register could not condone Khattar’s “lies”. Khattar had earlier said he had tried to contact Amarinder on the issue of protesting farmers many times, but could not connect. Khattar, interacting with media in Hisar on Sunday, attacked Amarinder for “use of inappropriate language”. “I tried to reach out to him a number of times. What to talk of acknowledging my efforts, he even tried to call me a liar? When we gave him the proof of call details, they did not utter a single word,” the Haryana CM said.
However, Amarinder said by releasing call record copies, purporting to be of Haryana CM office’s attempt to get in touch with him, the Haryana chief minister had exposed his deception even more sharply. “If at all someone from his office called my residence, why were the calls made to an attendant? Why were official channels not used to get in touch with me?” said Amarinder.
The Punjab CM added top officials of Punjab and Haryana had been in touch with each other on farmers’ issues for several days, yet none of these officials conveyed Khattar’s desire to talk to him at any point in time. “How many times in the past has Khattar used the attendant channel to get in touch with me?” asked Amarinder.
Khattar’s private secretary had on Saturday released details of 13 telephonic calls made on November 23 and 24 to Amarinder, after the Punjab CM had denied receiving any calls from his Haryana counterpart. Earlier, Punjab CM had attacked Khattar for police action and said he would not speak to the Haryana CM till he apologised to farmers.
On Sunday too, Khattar talked about presence of miscreants (separatists) among the agitating farmers who could cause law and order trouble in the state. “We have seen videos which clearly support the allegation. Besides, we have got certain inputs on which we shall not elaborate right now. This issue is under investigation and appropriate action will follow,” he added.
Countering Khattar’s remarks that farmers should not block Haryana’s borders, Amarinder pointed out that it was Khattar’s government and police that had been blocking borders for three days by forcibly stopping farmers from proceeding to Delhi. Amarinder flayed Khattar’s persistent denial of use of force by Haryana Police, stating all visuals were a matter of public record captured by the media.
He also said Khattar’s lies on the issue had been totally exposed by Haryana farmers themselves, as they had not only rejected their chief minister’s claims that no farmer from his state had joined the march, but had shown identity cards issued by the Haryana government.