New Delhi [India], Oct 18 (ANI): Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday left everyone stunned by revealing his impeccable command over the Tamil language during an interview.
In an interview with a Tamil TV channel, Khattar gave answers in Tamil to the queries put up by Thanthi TV journalist, who choose to ask questions in English.
"Meendum thamarai malarum (lotus will bloom again)", Khattar said.
However, he did also respond to one of the queries in English.
Many in the party were also surprised watching Khattar speaking fluent Tamil and made assumptions that his knowledge of the language must have come from his initial days in RSS when he travelled throughout the country to fulfil his responsibility as Sangh's pracharak.
However, informed sources claim that the reality is different from this assumption.
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According to a source close to Khattar, the Chief Minister learnt Tamil from an institute of South Indian language via correspondence.
"He learnt Tamil in 1979 from an institute through correspondence. And he became pracharak only in 1980. So, he did not learn it during his pracharak days while he lived in Tamil Nadu but had actually learnt it before he became pracharak and was deployed in that particular region," source said.
During the interview, Khattar also made use of the opportunity to ask for votes from Tamil community living in Haryana.
He said, "I would appeal to people of Haryana and Tamil Nadu that you must vote for democracy... It is our duty to vote. "
This is not the first time that Khattar's knowledge of Tamil has come out in open. In January this year, Khattar delivered a speech in Tamil, on the occasion of Pongal. Following which Tamil Nadu BJP unit was thrilled to an extent that suggestions to rope him for campaigning in Tamil Nadu started pouring in.
After watching his command over Tamil, many social media users have again suggested that BJP should rope in Kattar for campaigning in Tamil Nadu Assembly election in 2021.