New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) A plea was filed in a court here on Wednesday against Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over his statement during a meeting with workers of BJP's Kisan Morcha on October 3, in which he allegedly asked the party members to stand up against protesting farmers.
The petition alleged that as per the video of the meeting, the CM was asking party workers to make "500-600-1,000 volunteers" in every district of north and west Haryana, and be ready to "face sticks, imprisonment", which will make them "big leaders".
In the plea filed before Sachin Gupta, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Rouse Avenue Court, complainant Advocate Amit Sahni, contended that the link of the CM's meeting with partymen was live on YouTube.
However, after the portion of his controversial remarks went viral on social media, the video was taken off, but it was broadcast by several persons connected with the Chief Minister Office, Haryana.
The video is still available on various social platforms and news websites, the petitioner said.
"The contents of the videos make it abundantly clear that the accused has committed offence under sections 109, 153, 153A and 505 IPC by giving provocation with intent to cause riot, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and making statements conducing to public mischief under section 109, 153, 153 A, 505 IPC," the plea stated.
Pointing out a series of related events, the plea said that earlier Haryana IAS officer Ayush Sinha made a controversial statement to "break heads" of farmers.
It also highlighted the controversial incident that took place during Khattar's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' in 2019 as part of his campaign in the run-up to the Haryana assembly elections, in which he was allegedly heard saying "I will chop your head off," in a viral video.
Quoting "Be ye never so high, the law is above you", the words of English Judge Lord Denning, the petitioner said that no one is above the law and that the law applies to everyone equally, regardless of anyone's rank or position.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
The petitioner said the state had passed the Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act of 2006 but it has never implemented it in case of appointment in judicial services.
In the run up to the assembly polls scheduled early next year, the BJP Punjab unit has launched several campaigns to strengthen its organisational structure at ground level. Sharma said that work is progressing at good pace for formation of a 21-member committee at each polling booth.
