CM Bhagwant Mann, Punjabi daily editor Hamdard show signs of reconciliation

Jalandhar: The bitterness between chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Barjinder Singh Hamdard, the managing editor of Ajit, a Punjabi daily, appears to be fading away.
On Friday, the two encountered each other at the antim ardas (last prayers) of Resham Kaur, the wife of noted singer and former BJP MP Hans Raj Hans. As the CM came face to face with Hamdard inside Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Model Town, he bowed and touched Hamdard's feet as a mark of respect, in turn, the senior media professional hugged Mann.
Hamdard had made public the tension between his media house and the AAP govt in Punjab by writing a front-page signed editorial around two and a half years ago, disclosing that the advertisements to the media house were stopped at all levels.
He later also wrote to the Punjab governor.
Mann had even taken a dig at Hamdard through a couplet. Later, the vigilance bureau started investigating the Jang-E-Azadi Memorial at Kartarpur, in which Hamdard had played a pivotal role. All the opposition parties rallied behind Hamdard and condemned the "suppression of freedom of the press" by the AAP govt.
The vigilance bureau even named Hamdard in an FIR registered in May last year, and he had to move the Punjab and Haryana high court to get his arrest stayed.
During all this, Ajit carried numerous stories against the Punjab govt. After the AAP suffered losses in the parliamentary elections last year, the central leadership of the AAP intervened directly to resolve the bitterness between the two. And in October last year, the Punjab govt started releasing advertisements to the Punjabi daily.
On Friday, it was the first time that the bonhomie between Mann and Hamdard was witnessed in public.
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