The BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday termed Punjab Chief Minister Captain (retired) Amarinder Singh’s dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi as “political drama”. In a joint statement, Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma and BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh lambasted the Chief Minister for creating a “deceptive hype” on the three bills passed by the Punjab Assembly.
“While all the three state amendment bills have been rejected by the farmers’ organisations as well as the Congress government in Chhattisgarh for being unconstitutional and an eyewash for farmers, the chief minister was trying to score political brownie points to impress Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,” read the statement.
Hitting out at Amarinder Singh’s remark that Punjab was being given step-motherly treatment by the Centre, the BJP leaders said various Centrally-sponsored development schemes have turned into scams in Punjab and all funds meant for development schemes have been siphoned off in corrupt practices as demonstrated by the post-Metric scholarship scam, it is preposterous for the chief minister to blame the Centre for anything.
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The BJP leaders said that the goods trains were not coming to Punjab because at 29 railway platforms and three other places railway tracks were blocked by farmers. “The chief minister should have advised the farmers to withdraw their protest or change their mode of protest instead of blocking the railway tracks. Instead, the chief minister has been secretly telling the farmers to keep the railway tracks blocked so that he could play his political games in the name of farmers”, they said.
Speaking to reporters in Chandigarh, Youth Akali Dal President Parmbans Singh Romana said that Delhi dharna is only a “political drama” of the Chief Minister. He said that the Delhi dharna of Amarinder Singh and his MLAs is only a drama whereas ground reality it new Central laws have been implemented in Punjab through Mandi Board which directly reports to the chief minister.
The dharna has been called by Punjab CM alleging the power crisis and shortage of essential supplies situation in the state after the Centre’s refusal to allow movement of goods trains due to farmers’ agitation. Last month, Punjab has passed a resolution rejecting the recent farm laws brought by the Centre and passed four Bills to counter the Central laws. (ANI)
