Stop telling me how to rule my state: Capt to Sukhbir

In a hard-hitting reaction to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal’s “ridiculous and uncalled for” statement on his style of functioning, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday said that he did not need any lessons from the former Deputy Chief Minister, who had devastated the state with his misgovernance during the 10-year SAD-BJP rule.

“Given his own total failure on the governance front, as was evident from the complete mess into which the erstwhile government had plunged the state, Sukhbir had no locus standi to comment on anyone’s governance style,” said Capt Amarinder.

He said that Sukbir’s statement was totally senseless, conveying nothing more than his frustration over his party’s virtual effacement from the state’s political scene.

“It is not my control or lack of it that Sukhbir should worry about, but his own loss of control in SAD, and more importantly, in Punjab’s political dispensation,” he said.

The Chief Minister said: “Unlike the Akalis, led by the Badals, I believed in giving a free hand to his civil and police administration to function efficiently without fear or favour so that they can deliver effectively in line with the promises and policies of the government.”

“The bureaucrats and police officials had been totally stifled by the Badals,” he pointed out, adding that if that was the ‘control’ Sukhbir was referring to, then he was happy and proud not to be exercising the same.

Had he not given a free hand to the police, the gang wars, the targeted killings and the desecrations that had destroyed the state’s law and order under the Akali regime would still have been continuing, the Chief Minister pointed out.

The bureaucracy was also now functioning more transparently than it was ever allowed to do during the decade-long SAD-BJP rule, said Capt Amarinder, pointing to the successful implementation of various government schemes by the bureaucrats.

Capt Amarinder challenged Sukhbir to come out with even one legal remedy which could have enabled the government to reverse its stand before the Supreme Court in the Navjot Singh Sidhu case.

“Instead of wasting time in such falsehoods and propagation of misinformation, Sukhbir should invest his energies in securing the interests of Punjab with the Central Government, led by the SAD ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” said the Chief Minister.

BADAL VERSUS BADAL

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has also lambasted his estranged cousin Sukhbir Badal for trying to mislead the people of Punjab with his blatantly false statements on the state’s financial situation.

“If the Badals had managed to generate some funds, it was by mortgaging the state’s assets and not through fiscal management and revenue accretion,” he said.

Manpreet accused the Akalis of mortgaging not just the state’s properties but the future of its youth for many generations to come. “They sold out Punjab and its interests in every possible way, leaving behind a trail of devastation, capped by a Rs 2.08 lakh crore debt burden,” said the Finance Minister.

Instead of apologizing to the people or trying to make amends by supporting the Congress government’s efforts to bring the state back on the growth track, Sukhbir continued to behave in a shockingly irresponsible manner, he said.

On the tag of ‘duplicate Badal’ given to him by Sukhbir, Manpreet said that Sukhbir did not own the ‘Badal’ name, though he and his family were responsible for making it synonymous with all bad things done for Punjab and its people.