The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Monday decided on an aggressive but constructive strategy to expose the Akalis and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the floor
of the House during the ongoing Budget Session of the Vidhan Sabha.
The CLP meeting, convened by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, decided to force the Akalis’ hand in the House on various issues on which they had unleashed a false propaganda campaign against the Government.
There was unanimity in the need to use the social media more aggressively to counter the fraudulent information being spread by them to mislead the people.
Directing the party MLAs to go all out to expose the Akali ‘pol’ on the floor of the House, the Chief Minister reiterated his stand that his government will not indulge in any political vendetta, and made it clear to the members that the misdeeds of the Akalis would not go unpunished and those found guilty of any wrongs against the people of Punjab would be punished under the law.
Capt Amarinder directed the members to use the government’s achievements, of which they were provided a list at the CLP meeting, to counter the Opposition’s deceitful propaganda. The members should, in particular, highlight the clean governance provided to Punjab by the Congress government, he added.
Pointing out that the Treasury benches were well aware of the issues likely to be raised by the Opposition, the Chief Minister asked the MLAs to be well prepared with facts and data to counter the same. The task of speaking in the House on the issue of illegal sand mining was assigned to Raja Amarinder Singh Warring.
Health Minister Brahm Mohindra underlined the need for the Congress to seize the advantage resulting from the fact that both the SAD and AAP were busy trading allegations and counter allegations in the charged political environment.
Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was of the opinion that the Congress should shame AAP during Zero Hour over Arvind Kejriwal’s apology, which amounted to violation of the trust of the people of Punjab.
Local Government Minister Navjot Singh stressed the need to spread the message about the government’s numerous achievements among the masses. “We have achievement in a year what the SAD-BJP combine could not do in 10 years,” he added.
A suggestion was mooted by some members to compare the first year of the Captain Amarinder government with the first year of the erstwhile SAD-BJP government.