A day after making a controversial statement on the death of the farmers during the ongoing protest, Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal, on Sunday, issued a clarification and apologised for the same. Referring to the farmers, JP Dalal had said that they would have died even if they had stayed back home.

“If anyone is hurt by my statements, then, I apologise. My statement has been misinterpreted. I am committed to the welfare of farmers’, clarified Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal yesterday,” ANI quoted Dalal as saying. 

Dalal made the remark in Bhiwani in response to a reporter’s query over the “death of 200 farmers”.

“Had they been at their homes, they would have died there also,” Dalal said.

“Listen to me, out of one to two lakh, do not 200 people die in six months?” he asked in response.

“Someone is dying of a heart attack and someone after falling ill,” he added.

Several Punjab and Haryana farmers, participating in farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws at various Delhi border points, have died of different reasons including cardiac arrest.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked Dalal over his remarks and said such a statement can only be made by an “insensitive” person.

“These words can only be used by an insensitive man for agitating ‘annadatas’,” said Surjewala in a tweet.

Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja too slammed Dalal for his statement.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting since late November at Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.