Jangra’s Pahalgam remark his personal opinion: Union minister Khattar

Khattar was at the BJP’s district office in Karnal, where he spoke to reporters on different issues and also chaired a meeting of the core group

Union energy minister Manohar Lal Khattar, terming BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra’s remark that tourists should have put up a fight against terrorists in Pahalgam as inappropriate, on Sunday, said that it was the lawmaker’s personal opinion and not of the party’s.

Karnal MP Manohar Lal Khattar during his visit at BJP’s district office in Karnal on Sunday. (HT Photo)

“Though he has clarified that he meant to say that women should also become ‘veerangana’, but he kept it in the wrong context. Talking about the women who have lost their husbands (during Pahalgam attack) is inappropriate and wrong. Jangra has also expressed regret about what he said, and I believe the issue should end here,” Khattar said.

Khattar was at the BJP’s district office in Karnal, where he spoke to reporters on different issues and also chaired a meeting of the core group.

Jangra, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP had made the remark on Saturday during a seminar in Bhiwani on the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilya Bai Holkar. “If the women present there (Pahalgam), whose husbands were killed, had read the history of Ahilya Bai, no one could have shot their husbands in front of them,” he had said.

Responding to a question, Karnal MP said that India has become the fourth-largest economy in the world, which is a very big achievement. “The country is constantly moving forward under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India was considered the eighth or ninth economy 10 years ago, and today it has become the fourth-largest economy in the world, leaving Japan behind. But by 2027, I believe, India will be the third largest economy in the world and by 2047 it can also reach the second or first position,” Khattar said.

Regarding the increasing Covid cases, the Union minister said that the health department and the central government are alert. “The health department and the central government are alert to prevent the spread. Precautions should be taken, all preparations have been made, and apart from this, whatever measures are required to be taken will be taken,” Khattar said.

Haryana assembly speaker Harvinder Kalyan, MLAs Ramkumar Kashyap, Bhagwandas Kabirpanthi and Yogendra Rana, mayor Renu Bala Gupta, BJP state general secretary Dr Archana Gupta, BJP district president Praveen Lathar, MP representative Kavindra Rana and others were present during the occasion.