Khattar vs Amarinder: Twitter spat over farmers’ protests gets intense

New Delhi: The war-of-words between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over the ongoing farmers’ protests, which shook the national capital for the third consecutive day, seems to be getting more intense by the day. Making a sensational charge, Harayana CM Khattar alleged a “Khalistan angle” in the farmers’ protest. Levelling a serious allegation the Haryana CM claimed that his government had “inputs of the presence of Khalistani elements in the farmers protests”. Khattar claimed that “We have inputs of some unwanted elements in the crowds”.

After these allegations by CM Khattar, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh demanded an apology from him, saying, “I’ll not forgive him for what he’s done to the farmers. He never called earlier but now I won’t talk to him till he apologises.” Earlier Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar slammed his Punjab counterpart over allegedly refusing to indulge in a dialogue. “I’ve been trying to reach out to you for the last 3 days but sadly you decided to stay unreachable – is this how serious you are for farmer’s issues?”, asked Khattar. He further questioned “why Punjab CM has only been tweeting but running away from talks”.

The Punjab CM though had denounced the charges claiming that he hadn’t ignored Khattar’s calls. “The Centre has now allowed farmers to enter Delhi, yet the Haryana govt. is resorting to brutal force to stop them from marching peacefully to the national capital?”, said Amarinder Singh. Though after Captian Amarinder claimed that he never ignored Mr Khattar’s calls, the Personal Secretary of the Haryana CM, Abhimanyu Singh, addressing Amarinder Singh alleged “It seems that your personal staff didn’t brief you about the phone calls of other Chief Ministers made in official capacity,” in an attempt to counter the Punjab CM’s claims of not receiving any phone calls. “For record I want to state that on 23rd Nov 2020 at 6.23PM, First call from CM residence was made at Punjab CM Residence but they told us to contact Siswa Farm,” he further alleged.

The war-of-words continued with CM Khattar taking a thinly veiled jibe at Captian Amarinder. CM Khattar appealed to those peddling “deception and propaganda” to avoid such cheap politics during the time of pandemic. The Haryana CM said that the ongoing stirs were politically “sponsored” and “motivated”. The tussle between the two CMs does not seem to end anytime soon as Singh further questioned Khattar about his involvement in “not allowing farmers to go peacefully to the national capital”. Singh asked “who’s Khattar to come in between? What business does he have interfering in this whole affair?”

While the shadow boxing between Captain Amarinder singh and Manohar Lal Khattar doesn’t seem to be ending, the demonstrations entered the third day. The protesting farmers at Delhi’s Burari’s Nirankari Samagam Ground said they would not leave the national capital till their grievances were addressed.