CM Khattar objects Farmers’ march method, calls them an ‘army’

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday criticised the “method” adopted by farmers to press their demands, saying they are trying to march to Delhi like an army on the offensive.

He said the farmers are moving with tractor-trolleys, earth-movers and ration for a year — just like an army.

“We have an objection to their method,” Khattar said on the farmers’ call for going to Delhi. “We do not have any objection to them going to Delhi. There are trains, buses and their own vehicles. But a tractor is not a mode of transport. It is an agricultural equipment.”

Farmers from Punjab are camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points seeking to march towards Delhi to press the Centre to accept their demands.

The farmer leaders have said they will not make any fresh attempt to move towards the national capital till the meeting is held, asserting that the next course of action will be decided on the basis of the Centre’s proposals.

Khattar also referred to the farmers’ previous agitation against the now-repealed farm laws and said how they camped at Tikri and Singhu borders for a year and causes hardships to many people.

“Even today, there are several videos of people appealing that they (farmers) should be stopped as their businesses will suffer,” said Khattar, responding to a question on the farmers’ call for ‘Dilli Chalo’.

Khattar said everybody has a democratic right to visit the national capital. “But how to proceed, what is the motive? These things must be kept in mind.”

To a question on Thursday’s meeting between the three union ministers and farmer leaders in Chandigarh, Khattar said he is hopeful that some way out will emerge.