Beef ban row:  Haryana CM  Manohar Khattar says his words were twisted, willing to apologise if anyone hurt

Hours after reports emerged of Manohar Lal Khattar saying Muslims can live in India if they give up eating beef, the Haryana CM has denied making any such comments on Friday.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Khattar said that his words were misconstrued and twisted.

Following massive social media backlash, veteran leader Khattar said,

He further added that their ideals are based on secularism and they divide in united society.

Earlier Indian Express reported Khattar as saying that Muslims can stay in India only if they are willing to forgo eating beef. Khattar was asked about the unfortunate Dadri incident, where Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death by a group of men over suspicion of cooking beef at home. Haryana CM while calling the incident ‘wrong’ and said that it was due to misunderstanding. According to him, both sides made mistakes in the incident and virtually blamed Akhlaq. Khattar claims that the victim made a loose comment about cows which incited the mob, who subsequently attacked him.

According to IE report, Khattar tried to rationalise the lynch mobbing and said that the incident was like that seeing close family member getting hurt or attacked, where one loses their sense of balance and anger gets the better of people.

According to Haryana CM, democracy has its limitation and freedom of expression doesn’t mean one can hurt sentiments of other people. He was quoted as saying, “Eating beef hurts the sentiments of another community, even constitutionally you cannot do this. The Constitution says you cannot do something that offends me, I cannot do something that offends you.” The Haryana CM said that Muslims can retain their faith even if they stop eating beef. He said that nowhere is it written that Muslims or Christians have to eat beef.

According to the report, Khattar considers steps taken by the Haryana  government to ban cow slaughter as one of his achievements.