Khattar plays nationalism card, says Cong sympathises with terrorists

Nitin Jain

Tribune news service

Ambala, October 11

Playing the nationalism card and launching a fierce attack on the Opposition Congress at a poll rally here on Friday late evening, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the Congress sympathises with terrorists and its party president Sonia Gandhi shed tears for militants.

Invoking Article 370, Khattar said Congress leaders such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who supported the Narendra Modi government’s move on Article 370 were unable to get the party support.

“Since they (Congress leaders) always shed tears when a terrorist gets killed and Sonia Gandhi cries seeing a terrorist’s body, how can they support the abrogation of Article 370?” he questioned.

Khattar reached Ambala City late in the evening after a whirlwind election campaign for the October 21 Assembly polls, addressing poll rallies in Panipat, Karnal, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra.

Stating that the contest is between those who say “Bharat Mata ki jai” and “Sonia mata ki jai”, the BJP leader referred to a video that had gone viral over the Internet in which the Congress nominee from the Gurgaon Assembly segment could be heard saying people would only say “Sonia mata ki jai” and not “Bharat mata ki jai”.

Asking the Congress and its state president Kumari Selja to clear their stand on this video, Khattar said, “One can very well understand why they are silent. They are in a dilemma. If they say the video is fake, it will annoy Sonia Gandhi. And if they say the video is authentic, the public will get angry.”

Claiming that his government provided a “clean” and “transparent” administration, the CM said he put an end to the system prevalent earlier where ‘parchi’ (favouritism) and ‘kharchi’ (corruption) ruled the roost in the state.

“We have set a target of winning 75 plus seats in the 90-member Assembly, but I can see from the public response that we will breach even greater number,” Khattar added.