Pathankot, Dec 3 (IANS) Slamming Amarinder Singh for his "myopic" mindset towards the poor, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Friday that the former CM targeted him because he had raised issues of the common man.
Addressing a public gathering at Bhoa near here, the Chief Minister said that as he "comes from a family with humble background, he always impressed upon the former Chief Minister to safeguard the interests of the common man".
However, he said, instead of resolving the issues and give reprieve to the poor and the downtrodden, the 'Maharaja' -- as Amarinder Singh, the scion of the erstwhile Patiala Royal family, is called -- started victimising him.
Channi said that even then he continued his struggle for the underprivileged masses.
The Chief Minister said that only the Congress can take a revolutionary decision to oust a 'Maharaja' and bestow responsibility of the Chief Minister to a common man.
However, he said this revolution can sustain only if all the common and needy people stand united to support the Congress. Channi categorically said that the powerful elite class is conniving to destabilise this common man's government by dividing the poor on sectarian lines.
Lashing out at the Akalis, the BJP and Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister said they are partners in crime against the people of Punjab. He said the trio had connived to pass anti-farm laws for jeopardising the interests of the state.
Channi said the Akalis are the mother of the anti-farm laws, as they had passed the Bill on contract farming in the Punjab Assembly in 2013, which later became the basis of the 'draconian' farm laws, adding that they were hand-in-glove with the BJP to pass these black laws in the Parliament.
Slamming Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal for his 'little knowledge' about the state, Channi said the Delhi Chief Minister is groping in the dark for fulfilling his lust for power.
He said besides being an outsider, Kejriwal is also a rumour-monger who knows nothing about the state but pokes his nose in every matter.
Such cheap politics will never be successful in the state, he added.
The Chief Minister also said that Kejriwal is a 'power hungry outsider', who desires to rule Punjab due to which he is trying to mislead the Punjabis.
In a statement here, Badal said it was condemnable that the NDA government had targeted Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and the Bharat Samachar group because they had posed tough questions to the government in keeping with high standards of journalism.
In a written reply to parliamentarian Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (External Affairs) V.A. Muraleedharan said during the unprecedented crisis, the international community came forward with offers of solidarity and assistance for specific medicines and equipment that were not immediately available in the country.
With the Pegasus snoopgate leading to ruckus in the Parliament, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday that the news story on snooping was an attempt to malign India's democracy and its institutions.
Slamming the BJP leader for using derogatory language against the farmers, who have been peacefully agitating against the three Central farm laws for the past nearly eight months, the Chief Minister said that it reflected the party's anti-farmer mindset.
The man was arrested on Tuesday after the woman, 22, lodged a complaint with the police. She alleged that the man had threatened to kill her after she began avoiding him when she learnt of his true identity.
