The Congress party has suspended its Haryana leader, Khazan Singh, for six years because of his decision to appear on Arnab Goswami’s show on ‘unfriendly’ news channel Times Now.

Associated with the party for over four decades, Khazan Singh had appeared on Arnab Goswami’s programme, News Hour, on Times Now channel, which the Congress’ Haryana unit has been boycotting for last six years.

Singh had gone on the show to debate the fallout of the Dhingra Commission report on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s land dealings.

Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar said, “We have suspended Haryana Congress general secretary Khazan Singh for six years for talking to the TV channel which the party has on principle been boycotting for months. No one in the party can on their own decide to speak to any TV channel. The person in question did not seek any permission and acted on his own against party line.”

Tanwar said that Khazan Singh’s decision to appear on Times Now was tantamount to an act of “indiscipline.”

The suspension has left Singh stunned. He said that he was unaware of the boycott decision.

He told Tribune, “I will reply to the notice when I get it.”

(The earlier version of this report said Khazan Singh was suspended for 6 months as opposed to 6 years. We’ve now updated the report. Apologies for the error)

According to reports, Singh’s suspension was approved by Congress general secretary in charge of Haryana Kamal Nath, who acted in consultation with the party’s media department.