SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal addresses a press conference in Chandigarh Friday. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
“False promises, false hopes, deceit, blatant lies, fraud, betrayal and utter failure.” This is how SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal summed up the six months’ tenure of the Congress government in Punjab led by Captain Amarinder Singh as he came out all guns blazing while addressing a press conference at the SAD head office in Chandigarh on Friday.
Amarinder, who is on a private visit to the United Kingdom, returned the fire in a statement on his behalf issued from Chandigarh where he flayed Sukhbir and Shiromani Akali Dal for “unleashing a negative, anti-people agenda with their misleading statements and baseless charges against the Congress government”.
Sukhbir said it was for the first time since Independence that the state government defaulted in paying salaries.
Amarinder blamed the erstwhile SAD-BJP government for the fiscal mess in the state caused by an ill-conceived and “corrupt” policy of the previous government coupled with the delay in GST contribution from the Centre that led to the delay in salary disbursement of government employees this month.
The Congress government, said Sukhbir, was the first government to “end the sanctity of Cabinet” as the Cabinet took decisions without “generating funds”. Questioning Amarinder on the promises of farm loan waiver, unemployment allowance, smart phones, old-age pension, shagun schemes as well as other welfare schemes, Sukhbir said that despite the Cabinet nod in a number of cases, decisions have not been implemented. “Cabinet [nod] does not mean we will do it. It means done.”
Flashing forms of karza kurki khatam, fasal di poori rakam, a pre-poll promise of the Congress, the SAD president said the Captain had promised that all farm loans, adding up to Rs 90,000 crore, would be waived. He added that promises were not fulfilled and the state government was seeking help from the Centre. “Has Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra taken help from the Centre?” wondered Sukhbir.
“Kurki goes on,” said Sukhbir, pointing out that the state government did not abolish the “actual clause” under which kurki was done.
Accompanied by Akali leaders Bikram Singh Majithia, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Virsa Singh Valtoha, N K Sharma and Pawan Kumar Tinu, Sukhbir also flashed a number of MoUs signed by the government with various job providers and said they were unrealistic. Sukhbir even read out the pamphlet that “I, Captain Amarinder Singh, promise you that after forming government, I will provide one job per family.”
Sukhbir said the government had signed an MoU with CII for providing 30,000 jobs. “At the CII office here, there are only 25 employees,” he stated. Sukhbir said an “undated” MoU was signed with Assocham for 12,000 jobs. There was such a hurry that they did not put a date. I think a case of fraud should be registered.” Sukhbir continued, “If Tribune or Indian Express employs a driver,” said Sukhbir in a lighter vein, the Congress government would take credit for that too.
“The government has failed to give a single job to any youth except the job of deputy superintendent of police to an over-aged youth, who happens to be the grandson of former CM Beant Singh,” said Sukhbir, adding that increase in rural development and market fee would hit farmers.
Then, training his guns on Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, the SAD chief said, “We got rid of him [during SAD-BJP rule]….Manpreet Badal does not understand finance…Capt Sahib nu marvauga eh kalla banda (He alone will spell doom for Captain).”
Amarinder retorted, “The Badals and their associates were engaged in brazen loot during the decade of their rule, leaving the exchequer reeling under an unprecedented debt and have the audacity now to blame the Congress government for the crisis prevailing in the state.” He added, “Notwithstanding the economic crisis in the state, the Congress government has fulfilled all its major promises, from social welfare schemes to drugs elimination to industrial development and waiver of farm loans.”
The CM said Sukhbir was “continuously misguiding farmers on the issues of debt waiver and kurki abolition”. “By negating the hard facts and figures on employment, the SAD president was also trying to undermine the confidence of the youth, who were suffering the consequences of the Badal government’s total failure to protect them from the menace of drugs and unemployment,” added Amarinder.
