Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has hit back strongly at Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, stating that he will continue meeting families affected by the Rohtak tragedy despite accusations of “politicising” the death of young basketball player Hardik Rathi. Mann said sharing the grief of bereaved families cannot be dismissed as politics and asserted that Haryana should instead answer why athletes are losing their lives due to inadequate sports infrastructure.
“We are in politics — what else are we supposed to do? Will dead bodies now start coming out of Haryana’s sports grounds? If standing with a sportsperson’s family is called politics, we will keep doing that politics,” Mann said, countering Saini’s criticism. He added that the Rohtak case was not an isolated incident and cited a similar tragedy in Bahadurgarh as evidence of recurring negligence in Haryana’s sports system.
Earlier, Saini had accused Mann of interference and urged him to focus on Punjab’s drug crisis instead of visiting Haryana. Mann dismissed the remark, saying that governments must be accountable when young athletes lose their lives due to systemic failures.
Commenting on the ongoing SIR controversy and BJP allegations, Mann said that political parties should not be expected to prove or disprove claims when the Election Commission has the constitutional responsibility to ensure electoral transparency. He questioned why the EC demands proof from critics of EVMs instead of independently verifying and demonstrating the machines' security.
Taking a sharp dig at the BJP, Mann remarked, “If the BJP truly believes in the Modi wave, why does it hesitate to allow elections in any format?” His comments underline mounting friction between the AAP-led Punjab government and the BJP-led Haryana government amid growing public scrutiny over sports infrastructure failures following the Rohtak incident.
