Chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party for picking Sunny Deol and other actors as its candidates to portray them as symbols of its nationalist agenda in the elections, slamming Deol for his ignorance about the Balakot airstrikes.

“This shows the calibre of the people the BJP is seeking to impose on the people of India. While Modi has been taking credit for Balakot, this man (Deol) does not even know what actually happened there,” he said while addressing an election rally at Samana in support of his wife and Congress’ Patiala candidate Preneet Kaur.

“These actors are just showpieces. Hema Malini did not open her mouth once in the Lok Sabha when she represented Mathura for five years,” the chief minister added.

Amarinder Singh also slammed Modi over his remarks on former PM late Rajiv Gandhi and his bid to take credit for the achievements of the armed forces.

“The Modi regime is nothing but a saga of failed promises. Demonetisation failed to end black money while GST broke the back of thousands of small traders,” he added.

In her address, Preneet described demonetisation as the harbinger of misery to the common man. “The Modi government’s policies have been anti-people. People should vote out the BJP in their own interest and the interest of the nation,” she said.

Later, talking to media persons, Amarinder Singh said the state government will compensate the farmers if the Centre does not meet their demand for withdrawal of value cut on the minimum support price (MSP) in the procurement of wheat due to damage to crops by unseasonal rain.

This came two days after Amarinder announced to advance paddy sowing from June 20 to June 13.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has imposed a cut of Rs 4.60 per quintal if the loss of grain lustre is above 10 percent, even as the farmers have been opposing the move.

The CM said he would ensure the farmers are not penalised or burdened for no fault of theirs.

“The BJP-led government at the Centre has been meting out step-motherly treatment to Punjab’s farmers in a bid to undermine the Congress government in the state,” said Amarinder, citing the Centre’s decision to divert gunny bags to Haryana and imposition of value cut on MSP for the wheat procured under the relaxed specifications in the state during the rabi season in 2019-20.

He said despite his repeated requests, including the letters he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, the Centre has failed to respond so far.

First Published: May 09, 2019 10:15 IST