Chandigarh, (Samajweekly) Asserting that he was not scared of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or anyone else, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday slammed all the opposition parties in the state for playing politics with the lives of the farmers to further their own interests.
He and the entire Congress was solidly with the farmers and the Centre must listen to them and accept their demands, said the Chief Minister, lambasting all the key opposition players, right from Akali Dal’s Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Badal and Harsimrat Kumar, to Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar, for their flip-flops and for making a mockery of the fight of the farmers, who were sitting out in the cold on the roads to get their rightful due.
“For 13 years, I have been going to courts because of the cases initiated against me by the Badals, I am not bothered about the ED. I can go to courts and fight for another 13 years,” he said, reacting to Harsimrat Badal’s charge that he was under the ED pressure.
“All these Badals are alike, and they are all liars,” he said, advising the Akali leaders to stop lying and tell the truth as “the people know what you are.”
The Chief Minister said in his meeting on Thursday, he had told Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the amendment Bills passed in Punjab Vidhan Sabha were the solution to breaking the deadlock over the farmers’ issue as they were the essence of the state’s future.
“I urged him to get the Bills approved by the President,” he said, adding that on Thursday was the third time he met Shah, including once to congratulate him becoming Home Minister and the other two times for the sake of Punjab.
Taking on the Akalis over their double-speak on the farm laws, the Chief Minister said in a live video statement on Facebook that the Badals had publicly done a U-turn on the issue.
“I don’t know why Parkash Singh Badal got the Padma Bhushan in the first place,” he quipped, reacting to Badal senior’s decision to return the honour.
Noting that Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh had got Padma Vibhushan for winning the 1965 war, Amarinder Singh asked: “What war did Parkash Singh Badal fight or what sacrifice did he make for the community.”
“Stop politicking on this… these theatrics might have worked 40 years ago but they won’t work now,” he added.
“All his life Parkash Singh Badal has been claiming that he represents the interests of the farmers. Then why did his party support the Central Ordinances after initially opposing them, and then did an about-turn and started publicly criticising the legislations?” remarked the Chief Minister.
Amarinder Singh pointed out that as a member of the Union Cabinet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal had been very much a part of the meeting that passed the farm ordinances.
“Is she illiterate that she can’t read?” he asked.
Lashing out at his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal for twisting his statement on national security, the Chief Minister said it was clearly made in reference to Pakistan and as Home Minister of Punjab, it was his duty to apprise the Union Home Minister of the dangers of the prolonged agitation.
