Chandigarh, Mar 11: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar became emotional while recalling the incident of Congress women MLAs pulling a tractor during the Congress protest march over the fuel price hike. Khattar said he was deeply anguished at the disrespect shown by Congress leaders towards women.
"Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Raghuvir Singh Kadian were proudly sitting on the tractor being pulled by women MLAs. And this happened on International Women’s Day. Hooda, a CM-level leader would have earned goodwill had he pulled the tractor with women MLAs sitting on the tractor," Khattar said.
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During the protest, Hooda sat in the driver's seat while Congress legislators pulled the tractor with ropes on the way to the state assembly. "This treatment to women MLAs was worse than bonded labour,” he said in the state Assembly referring to a Congress protest against the rising fuel prices on Monday. Khattar said he could not sleep all night after the visuals he saw on TV.
The chief minister was speaking during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address. Reacting to this statement, Hooda said that women MLAs were pulling the tractor to mark their protests against the sufferings of people due to fuel price hike. "The government has turned a blind eye to the pain of women who are sitting with farmers protesting on borders against farm laws. Power connections were cut at the protest site, you cannot see their pain," said Hooda.
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To this, Khattar said, "If you had to protest, you should have pulled the tractor." During his address, Khattar also talked about the several welfare schemes for women brought by his government.
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Several leaders came out to slam Hooda. Union Minister for Women & Child Development said, "On a day when PM @narendramodi Ji gave clarion call to celebrate entrepreneurial prowess of our #NariShakti, the Congress insulted its women MLA and workers of Haryana by making them ‘Bandhua Mazdoor’ to pull off a political tractor stunt. Shame!"