Khattar invites PM for state’s golden jubilee celebrations

CHANDIGARH: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming golden jubilee celebrations of the creation of Haryana, which kick off on November 1, and the international-level Gita Jayanti Samaroh.

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming golden jubilee celebrations of the creation of Haryana, which kick off on November 1, and the international-level Gita Jayanti Samaroh.

“These are two big events that are coming up in the state and we are going all out to make them a success. We want the Prime Minister to kick start the golden jubilee celebrations in November or open the Gita Jayanti Samaroh in December. I have already written to him, inviting him for the two programmes. We are hopeful of a favourable response,” said Khattar.

In Delhi today, the Chief Minister said he would try and seek an appointment with the Prime Minister and personally extend an invitation. “Since the two functions are only a month apart, we will be satisfied if the Prime Minister can spare time for either of the two programmes. I will personally call on him tomorrow and urge him to find time for one of the programmes,” Khattar said.

The golden jubilee celebrations will be a year-long affair, which will get underway on Haryana Day, November 1 this year, and continue till October 31 of next year. The BJP government, while seeking suggestions from various political parties in the state, has already finalised various state and district-level functions and announced that the public, too, would be involved in the celebrations.

However, if Modi agrees to declare the celebrations open, the state government intends to hold a rally to mark the occasion during which sops for the public could also be announced. The timing of the celebrations, too, is such that the BJP government would have completed two years of rule in Haryana and could use the opportunity to dove-tail it with the 50 years of state’s formation.

The international-level Kurukshetra Mahotsava Gita Jayanti Samaroh, too, for the first time, is being planned as a grand affair and is scheduled to be held from December 6 to 10.

The PM last came to Haryana in September 2015 to Faridabad to flag off the first metro on the Faridabad-Badarpur corridor. Though the state government invited him to inaugurate the “Happening Haryana” global business summit in Gurgaon in March this year, the PM could not make it to the event.