CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress took on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he yesterday taunted Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress party saying that they both act independently of each other and Amarinder is an `Independent Solider’.
Giving his victory speech yesterday at BJP headquarters in Delhi, Modi had hit at Congress party saying that it’s foot print has reduced across the country, he said that only one only one CM that of Puducherry was left in the country. Referring to Amarinder he said that he was not much of Congress CM. Though Modi did not name Amrinder only said Punjab CM and added that he acts independently.
Punjab Congress President and Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur, Sunil Jakhar today said that he (Modi) had actually acknowledged the free and democratic culture prevailing in the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Besides, he added, the Prime Minister had also recognized the self-respecting and independent character of the Punjabis represented by Amarinder.
“This is quite contrary to the autocratic and dictatorial culture prevailing in the Bhartiya Janata Party under Modi where saner and seasoned voices like those of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shaturgan Sinha have either been silenced or banished to the Marg Darshak Mandal”, Jakhar said.
Asserting that the Congress needed no certificate from the BJP about watching the interests of Punjab, Jakhar challenged him that if he was really such a well wisher of Punjab, he should reimburse Rs 31,000 crores that was siphoned off by the previous state government in which his party (BJP) was an alliance partner, which was blindly overlooked by the centre.
Jakhar also referred to the anti-Punjab and pro-Haryana stand of the Modi government at centre on the SYL issue in the Supreme Court of India, which otherwise had been settled for good by Amarinder way
back in 2004 by enacting ‘Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004’.
Amarinder also reacted, as he said that Modi’s remarks as part of the BJP’s futile attempts to create a wedge between him and the Congress high command through frivolous and unsubstantiated statements
ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Questioning the source of Modi’s `information’, Amarinder quipped, “I don’t remember complaining to him against the Congress high command. Did the high command go and complain to him against me?’
“One really fails to understand what prompted Modi’s ill-conceived and unfounded remark,” said Amarinder, asserting that neither he nor the Congress high command needed the prime minister’s advice on how to manage their internal relations.
“I know my business and I know how to run my state and manage my relationship with my party high command, which is more than one can say about the BJP leaders,” said the Chief Minister, adding that the Congress high command had full faith in his leadership and had given him a free hand to bring Punjab out of the mess into which the BJP, in alliance with SAD, had plunged the state.
As a loyal soldier of his party, which has a deep-rooted connect with the people across every state, Amarinder said he was leading the party in Punjab in a truly democratic manner, as becoming of a party
of the stature of the Indian National Congress, and as guided by the party high command.
Contrary to what Modi would like to believe, the Congress was not a fly-by-night party which he could simply wish away, said Amarinder, declaring his party’s complete readiness, under the leadership of its president Rahul Gandhi, to take on the BJP in the parliamentary elections next year.
“And I am personally set to take this battle to the finish, Modi,” the Chief Minister declared, adding that the Prime Minister’s `jumlebaazi’ would not have any impact on either the Congress leadership and workers, or the citizens of the country.