Haryana CM Khattar buys ‘pakodas’ from protesting Congress MLAs

The Congress legislators were selling pakodas before going to the state assembly as a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks over job creation.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday purchased “pakodas” from protesting Congress MLAs here, saying selling pakodas is a good business proposition for these ‘unemployed elders’.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar buying ‘pakodas’ from Congress leaders, who were protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks over job creation, during the budget session at Haryana assembly on Tuesday. (Sanjeev Sharma/HT)

“If anyone is getting employment by selling pakodas, it’s a good thing. They had become unemployed, but now they have got the pakoda-selling job ... a good thing,” Khattar said, taking a jibe at the Congress legislators.

The Congress legislators, led by Kiran Choudhary, were selling pakodas before going to the state assembly as a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks over job creation.

As Khattar, who was on his way to attend the ongoing state assembly session, saw Congressmen offering pakodas to passersby, he stopped his cavalcade and got down from the vehicle and purchased pakodas from protesting legislators.

Later in the assembly, health minister Anil Vij missed no opportunity to take a swipe at the Congress by saying that his department would get the quality of pakodas examined.

“The Union and Haryana governments had promised to create a large number of jobs but now they are assuring pakoda jobs to millions of people,” Congress legislator Karan Singh Dalal told reporters.

“First they made joke of a tea seller. Now they are doing the same thing with the poor people selling pakodas for a living,” he said.