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| - Fact Check: Manohar Lal Khattar never said he is chief minister only for Punjabis
Few AAP workers have also been arrested by the Haryana police for allegedly circulating this "fake news".
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India Today Fact Check
Khattar never said that “I am the CM only for the Punjabis”. But he and party tried to woo voters by speaking about his “Punjabi” identity.
The claim that Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar ever said that he is a chief minister "only for Punjabis", which has now gone viral, has sparked an ugly spat between the Haryana government and Aam Aadmi Party leaders.
Few AAP workers have also been arrested by the Haryana police for allegedly circulating this "fake news". India Today Fact Check found that Manohar Lal Khattar never said he is the chief minister "only for Punjabis". He has never said that he has got nothing to do with other castes as claimed by some people on social media.
On December 28, 2018, AAP social media in-charge of Hisar unit Harpal Kranti retweeted a post of another AAP member MK Balyan. This post slammed the Haryana CM for allegedly calling himself "only a chief minister for Punjabis". It shows an image that looks like a newspaper report to substantiate the claim.
Archived version of this tweet can be seen here.
"Mein kewal Punjabiyon ka CM, baaki jatiyon se koi lena dena nahin: Khattar" ( I am only CM of the Punjabis, nothing to do with other castes: Khattar)- is what the headline of the report reads. At a glance the "newspaper report" looks fictitious. The post neither mentions the name of the newspaper nor any byline. The report also doesn't clearly say when the Haryana CM made this comment and where.
Going through local and national media reports, we could not find any credible news reports that confirmed Haryana CM ML Khattar ever said this on any occasion.
Soon after this post gone viral, Haryana police swung into action and arrested at least two AAP workers and detained a few due to the alleged circulation of "fake news".
* :* (29.12.2018)
* , , https://t.co/kiNPiLq1t4 pic.twitter.com/eB7YeI2mMR Gurugram Police (@gurgaonpolice) December 29, 2018
The purported newspaper report also talks about an advertisement and claims that BJP projects "khattar, as the CM only for the Punjabis" in this party ad.
India Today found that this advertisement was indeed in circulation during the mayoral election held on December 16, 2018.
The then BJP mayor candidate from Karnal, Renu Bala Gupta too shared this ad on her Facebook page.
The advertisement also appeared in local editions of Hindi dailies in Karnal.
The English translation of one of the striking points in the ad reads, "It is for the first time that Haryana has got a CM from the Punjabi community in 52 years of its inception. If you make a mistake today, you won't get such a chance in the next 60 years."
It was reported in a national daily that the Election Commission found this advertisement by the state BJP to be "objectionable".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also jumped into the controversy and attacked the Khattar government for arresting AAP workers for the viral post.
? 70 ? https://t.co/lBlrFzoAJI Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 29, 2018
AAP social media strategist Ankil Lal targeted the Haryana CM on Twitter and reiterated with a hashtag "Khattar is only a CM for the Punjabis". He also tweeted a newspaper cutting from Hindi daily "Jagran", which allegedly claimed that Haryana CM had played the "Punjabi" card in the mayoral election.
.@mlkhattar
70
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pic.twitter.com/V3aiptTixB Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) December 29, 2018
We found that some other national dailies also reported that Khattar while interacting with Punjabi community during Mayoral election said, "if you want to cast your votes on the basis of caste then you should cast in favour of the BJP candidate as I am also a Punjabi".
But we could not find any video evidence of this particular comment.
India Today Fact Check inferred that Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and his party had reportedly spoken about his "Punjabi" identity during Mayoral election in the state. But he had never said that "I am the chief minister only for the Punjabis and I have nothing to do with other castes" as claimed by many.
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