Day after rally, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh calls PM Narendra Modi ‘master of deceit’

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “jumlebaaz” (con artist), “master of deceit and disinformation”, and the “worst leader” India had since Independence.

The CM’s statement came a day after Modi addressed a rally in Gurdaspur. Amarinder challenged the PM to cite any promise fulfilled by the BJP-NDA government at the Centre in the past five years.

Amarinder disputed “every statement” made by the PM at the rally, including the latter taking credit for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. “The PM has stooped to abominable levels in the face of his imminent defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Modi has once again lied on every issue, from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots to the Kartarpur corridor to farm debt waiver. Modi was talking nonsense to hide the failure of his government,” he said.

Modi, at the rally, accused Congress of putting hurdles in the way of the corridor plan and of instigating anti-Sikh riots. Amarinder described Modi’s speech as “a series of brazen lies”. “He has brought the nation to its nadir with his deceptions and fabrications. He is staring at his moment of judgement at the hands of the people, who are set to throw him out of power for good,” Amarinder said.

Reacting to Modi’s charge of the Congress orchestrating the 1984 riots, Amarinder claimed that the PM had maintained a “studious silence on the BJP/RSS workers named in the Tilak Marg police station FIR related to anti-Sikh violence, while trying to drag the Gandhi family into the matter”. “And what about the 1992 and 2002 riots in Gujarat which happened right under your nose and in which your own party members were squarely blamed and named?” he said.

Amarinder claimed that the Congress had been actively pursuing the case for a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in India to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistam, since the days of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He said the party had also made the demand when Manmohan Singh was the PM from 2004 to 2014.

The CM claimed that he himself had been taking up the issue with Pakistan for years. “You have not even given a single paisa for the celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, despite our repeated pleas. Yet, you claim to be the guardians of Sikhs and their religion,” he said.

Amarinder also slammed Modi for accusing the Congress of handing over Kartarpur to Pakistan, calling upon the PM to get his history right before shooting through his mouth.

He said the Congress government in Punjab had fulfilled more promises in 21 months than the Modi government at the Centre in five years. “India has plunged into utter ruin and devastation under his anti-people and divisive policies,” he said. “One wonders with what face Modi intends to go back to the people to seek re-election a few weeks from now.”