Khattar Meets Party WorKer Who saVed his LiFe
Was it a case of BJP’s “Sampark for Samarthan” (Contact for Support) programme, wondered the Opposition Congress in Haryana about Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s sudden visit to an ordinary party worker’s home in Ratia (Fatehabad). Many within the BJP also did not know what to make of it.
Kalu Ram, an old BJP worker, was taken by surprise when a group of policemen reached his house to inform him that the “CM Saheb” was about to reach his home. And the CM arrived within minutes.
A large number of people assembled on hearing about the CM’s surprise visit. Khattar told them that “I would have lost my life by falling from a running train one winter night in 1995 had Kalu Ram not come to my rescue.” Actually, Khattar was in town when he suddenly made this unscheduled visit to Ram’s house. “In 1995, I was the organising secretary of the party and nearly 1,700 workers of the party from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab were returning from Mumbai in a train after attending a party convention,” Khattar told the gathering. “Our train stopped in the Chambal area in the night. I decided to change my compartment. But the moment I alighted, the train started moving. I caught hold of a window and started beating it vigorously as all windows and doors were closed. I kept hanging for several kilometres in chilling cold and was about to lose grip when Kalu Ram appeared like an angel, opened the window and after recognising me, pulled me inside the train,” Khattar said. Modest Kalu Ram later told The Sunday Guardian that Khattar’s gesture touched his heart. “I still remember that day when someone was hitting violently on the window of our bogey while their train was passing through the Chambal terrain and no one wanted to open the door for fear of dacoits.”
“I am 6 feet 6 inches tall and not afraid of anyone. I thought even if a dacoit is there, I would kick him out. I opened the window and was shocked to find that it was Khattarji, almost fainting. That evening, he had gone to another bogey to resolve a dispute between workers from Delhi and Himachal Pradesh,” said Kalu Ram adding that “had I not pulled him in immediately, he would have definitely lost his grip and fallen from the train.”