Was introduced to computers by PM Modi: Haryana CM Khattar

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, October 7

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday revealed that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then organisational in-charge for the BJP in the state, who introduced him to the computers.

In an exclusive interaction with a select group of women journalists here, the Chief Minister, a former RSS functionary, said: “I still remember Modiji used to have an Ambassador car those days. He once came to Rohtak and asked for the car boot to be thrown open and three large boxes to be off-loaded to the room. I first thought the boxes contained televisions. But we were to later discover these were computers.”

Khattar while flagging Narendra Modi’s fixation with the urge to stay up to date with technology said, “Modiji asked us to call someone who could operate the computer, and I called a university computer operator. When he began working the computer we saw how the machine typed out everything at an impressive speed. Modi ji left but I kept working on the computer for hours. It’s another thing that the master board conked off a few days later,” the CM said recalling his association with the Prime Minister.

Khattar also spoke of how he would drive around Haryana villages on his bike.

“I used to drive a Yezdi,” he said.

“I must have visited at least 4,000 of the state’s 6,000 villages,” said the BJP veteran, who also spent eight years in Delhi as an RSS pracharak.

“This was from 1972 to 1980. I know areas of Delhi that even Delhi resident would not know,” Khattar said recalling how he used a cop’s bike recently to drive to the airport in Karnal when his officers reminded him that the travel was scheduled on a Tuesday which the CM earlier declared as car-free day in Karnal.

The announcement was made on September 1.

On the political side, the Chief Minister spoke of the challenge of contesting elections and said, “Contesting an Assembly election is tougher than contesting a Lok Sabha poll. In the former your personal worth is on judgment as a candidate.”

Khattar, who has been the Chief Minister of Haryana twice in a row in 2014 and 2019, said the party was geared to go on a hat-trick in 2024 state polls.

He also said the Haryana elections will happen at the scheduled time later next year and not with Lok Sabha polls. This amid the one nation, one election buzz.