Miffed over the appointment of actress Parineeti Chopra as State Ambassador for ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ initiative, Haryana’s outspoken Health and Sports Minister Anil Vij is in no mood to spare anyone.
The Cabinet Minister who had last week courted controversy after questioning the State Government’s move to rope in Parineeti Chopra for ‘BBBP’ initiative, on Tuesday said he was not given an invitation to a key event ‘Call for action’ related to the campaign in Gurgaon and came to know about it through media only.
Talking to the mediapersons here, the Minister said, “I don’t know who is organising this function, so how can I go there and attend it...I won’t even go to God’s place without an invitation.”
“Till yesterday, I did not know who was organising the event, whether it is a NGO or any other organisation. I came to know through newspaper advertisements that Women and Child Development Department is organising the Gurgaon function,” he claimed.
Vij also tweeted an image of a Hindi newspaper report stating that he had neither been informed nor invited to the function at Gurgaon and would be busy attending an official meeting scheduled in Chandigarh. The report quoted him as adding that the function was not in the ambit of the Health department.
When asked that Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain has claimed that the Health Minister had been invited for the Gurgaon event, Vij said, “May be the invitation was sent, but I did not receive it.”
Vij, a five-time MlA from Ambala Cantt further said his name along with that of the Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, were missing from the publicity material for the campaign since its launch earlier this year.
“When this (BBBP) scheme was launched in Panipat earlier this year, in all the advertisements issued in the print media, both mine and Education Minister’s (Ram Bilas Sharma’s) names were not there and likewise even today, our names are not there (in the advertisements),” said the Health Minister.
Notably, both Health and Education are key departments along with the Women and Child Department, which has been made the nodal department, for the success of the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious BBBP programme.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar, shared on Twitter a picture with Parineeti Chopra and US Ambassador to India, Richard Verma at Gurgaon event on Tuesday. The Chief Minister, actress Parineeti, State’s Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, US Ambassador Richard Verma, besides other dignitaries took part at Gurgaon’s event.
Parineeti had on Tuesday morning tweeted, “Soo much traffic, missed my flight, seeing photos of absolute mayhem in Mumbai!! Just one night of rain can do thisIJ” However, the actress managed to attend the evening event at Gurgaon for BBBP campaign.
The Manohar lal Khattar led Haryana Government had last week announced Parineeti as State Brand Ambassador to give a fillip to the BBBP initiative. Hours after the announcement, Anil Vij had tweeted his displeasure saying, “I do not have any information that anybody has been appointed brand ambassador of my department for ‘Beti Bachao’ programme.”
Vij even went on to say that they did not need “any actor or actress for this campaign”.
The issue has yet again brought to the fore the apparent strain in ties between Vij and Manohar lal Khattar. The Health Minister, however, sought to downplay any differences with the Chief Minister.
“The Chief Minister is my dear friend. I neither have any differences with him nor any difference of opinion. The talk of differences is a creation of Congress leaders,” Vij posted on his twitter handle on Tuesday.
This is not the first time that Vij has publicly taken on his own BJP Government in the State.
Vij, a veteran and well-known BJP leader who represents the Ambala Assembly seat, was one of the top contenders for the Chief Minister’s post. However, the BJP chose Khattar, a first-time legislator and former Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) ideologue.