Congress candidate in Amritsar Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday asked his BJP rival Arun Jaitley why the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat hadn’t withdrawn the petition against the Punjabi farmers in Kutch.
“It is a simple question: why is the Gujarat government not prepared to withdraw its appeal in the Supreme Court against the Gujarat High Court verdict that is in favour of the farmers?” the former Punjab CM said. Even after almost two months have passed since Modi made a public commitment on the issue of the eviction of the farmers during a rally at Jagraon in Punjab on February 23, nothing has been done, Amarinder added.
“We want Jaitley to clear the air on such an important issue that touches every Punjabi including him (Jaitley) since he also claims to be one,” he said adding that Jaitley owed an answer primarily for three reasons. One, he is an MP rom Gujarat. Two, he has been claiming to have roots in Punjab and three, he is now contesting from the most important city of Punjab that is representative of its history and culture. “That makes it all the more important for him to spell out his stand,” he said.
Replying to the allegation that Jaitley talked only about issues while he always talked about persons, Amarinder remarked: “When a person himself becomes an issue and that too for all the wrong reasons, be it Modi or Majithia, obviously questions will be raised.” Amarinder further asked why Jaitley was “shying away” from questions. “Does it not smack of either arrogance or ignorance? He has had enough of monologues. Time has come for dialogues and this is the time for answers to the questions his monologues have generated,” he said.