New Delhi: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar found himself in the midst of an unsavoury controversy as a video surfaced of him holding an axe and threatening a party worker and saying that he would “cut his neck off”.

The opposition, the Congress, was quick to grab on the opportunity. It asked what the chief minister would do to the public at large of this is how he behaves with his own party workers.

The video, which is from the Jan Ashirvaad Yatra which the BJP organised across the state, shows Khattar standing on top of a vehicle and accepting gifts. Just as one person hands him a long axe-like weapon, another standing behind him and wearing a yellow kurta along with a party hash, tries to put a silver crown on the chief minister’s head.

Khattar angrily turned around and told the party worker in Hindi: “Gardan kaat doonga teri” (I will cut your neck off). At this, the man is seen apologising to Khattar with folded hands.

The video was shared by Haryana Congress through a tweet. The party also quipped: “Anger and ego are harmful to health. Why does Khattar ‘saheb’ get angry? Taking an axe, he warns the leader of cutting his neck.”

Another senior party leader and spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, also asked: “If this is what he says to his leader, wonder what will he do with the public?”

Khattar later defended his action in an interview to ANI, claiming that the man in question had not made a complaint: “He’s an old party worker and he didn’t feel bad.”

He tried to give the issue a holistic touch saying, “Today if someone, especially my party worker, ties a silver crown to my head, I’ll get angry and I can’t tolerate it. We ended this culture after coming to power.”

But the issue certainly portrayed the chief minister in negative light. It also showed how he sometimes gets rattled easily. In the past too, there was an incident in which Khattar lost his temper and pushed aside a man who was trying to take a selfie with him in his home city of Karnal.