Gurmehar Kaur issue rocks Haryana Assembly

Chandigarh: Delhi university student Gurmehar Kaur issue rocked the Haryana Assembly today, with opposition INLD seeking state minister Anil Vij's apology for his tweet that dubbed her anti-ABVP campaign supporters as pro-Pakistan, liable to be thrown out of the country.

The issue was raised during Zero Hour by INLD's leader by former minister Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, who asked Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to rein-in his minister having the habit of shooting off his mouth.

Sandhu also said Vij should apologise for what he had said about Gurmehar Kaur.

With Vij being outside the House at the time the matter was raised, he walked in and drew vociferous support from his colleagues at treasurey benches.

Congress too supported INLD members on the issue with the MLAs from the opposition and the treasury benches having sharp exchanges, some of which had to be expunged.

Some BJP members also raised 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans.

Meanwhile, outside the House, Vij defended today what he had said yesterday, asserting "In my tweet yesterday, no where have I said anything personal against Gurmehar Kaur."

"I only said she should not do politics over martyrdom of her father," Vij told reporters later, adding "Pakistan has been fighting direct and proxy war against India for the last 70 years and an attempt has been made to give a clean chit to that country."

Gurmehar Kaur had said Pakistan did not kill her father, the war did. Somewhere she has shown a soft corner towards Pakistan."

Vij went to the extent of terming INLD act of raising the Gurmehar's issue inside the House as "anti-national."

"INLD MLA tried to support Guermehar, which is an anti-national thing to do," he said.

On INLD senior leader Abhay Chautala saying that young people can falter, Vij said "to say that she is a young woman, the matter cannot end there. If young people like her become a tool in the hands of the anti-national forces, they too cannot be deemed to have committed wrong."