‘I am not from Pakistan’: Manish Tewari on ‘Outsider’ tag

PATIALA: While kicking off his campaign for Anandpur Sahib seat after paying obeisance at Gurudwara Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib and then at Naina Devi temple on Monday, the former Union I&B Minister Manish Tewari said ‘I am not from Pakistan’ in a reply to the Opposition's remarks carrying the tags of ‘outsider’ on him.

He said, “I am not from Pakistan. I had served the nation and my state for years. The fight should be on issues and our fight is against the false promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government that not only played divisive politics by promoting communal disharmony among the citizens, but also kept the country under undeclared emergency”.

“I am born and brought up in Chandigarh. My father sacrificed his life for Punjab and Punjabiat. In this ours small Punjab, to create differences over outsider and insider is an injustice to Punjab. I don’t want to indulge in this politics but someone should ask the same question to P S Chandumajra, who is campaigning over this point against me, as he also hails from Patiala”, he added.

“This Lok Sabha election is a referendum over the working of NDA –BJP government. We have 33 days for campaigning and I am confident that the Congress will win on all 13 seats in Punjab. Very soon we would come up with a vision-document for the development of Anandpur Sahib.

While refuting the media query over his alleged remarks against Bhagwat Geeta, Tewari said that he and his party believes in Sarv Dharam Sambhav. He said his politics is to make people unite whereas BJP plays politics of divide.

“When we implemented MGNREGA the government was worried about the resources but we managed. The budget has this much flexibility that we can manage to meet the promise of giving Rs 72000 annually to each BPL family. We are not going to stop the existing subsidies or rationalise them as they will continue if Congress comes to power. Our promise of giving Rs 72,000 annually to people will be an addition to these subsidies,” Tewari said.

Meanwhile, assembly speaker Rana KP Singhalleged that the SAD – BJP had cheated the public by claiming that they had got approved the Banga-Naina Devi highway and had laid foundation stone only around 10 days before the model code of conduct came into force. He said that this road has been not approved yet and now the state government would get this road constructed at an expense of Rs 28 crores. He added that Punjab government had now written to the chief electoral officer, Punjab to give approval for issuing of tenders for the construction of this Banga – Naina Devi road.