Making a complete U-turn, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has now denied telling the Indian Express that Muslims have to give up beef if they chose to live in India on Thursday.
He was quoted as saying,” Freedom of one person is only to the extent that it is not hurting another person. They can be Muslim even if they stop eating beef, can't they?"
"My statement has been twisted. Even if there is a word which hurts someone's sentiments I am ready to regret," Khattar told media on Tuesday.
Khattar added: “We were raised in unity in the society, our ideology is that of secularism.”
However, Khattar is quoted as terming the Dadri lynching incident as ‘wrong’ in the same article. But playing devil’s advocate he argued, comparing the lynching to a man’s reaction to a person if he were responsible for killing his mother or molesting his sister.
Recently, the Haryana Assembly passed a bill banning consumption of beef and cow slaughter which are prosecutable offences with jail terms ranging from 3 to 10 years and a fine of Rs. 30,000 to 100,000.
"Our CM didn't say anything like this, all he said was we should respect everyone... The newspaper which has posted this news piece has tried to put words in the Haryana CM's mouth," said Jawahar Yadav, officer on special duty to the Chief Minister on Friday, while speaking to ANI.
Reactions have poured in from some quarters to the CM’s controversial remarks.
AIMIM president, Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted that the CM had a mentality similar to a mob.
While, AAP leader Ashutosh tweeted: "He is CM of Haryana. Named M L Khattar. Doesn't know constitution, reads only RSS books. My sympathy for his knowledge."