Chandigarh, Nov 26 (IANS) Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday lashed out at Congress secretary in-charge of Punjab, Harish Chaudhary, over his baseless accusations of being hand in glove with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, when he was the Chief Minister.
Amarinder Singh said in a statement here that although he owed no explanation to "an out of job legislator who has been sacked as a minister in Rajasthan for being named as an accused in murder case of Kamlesh Prajapat, in Barmer, and inquiry for which has been handed over to the CBI by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot", he still wanted to set the record straight.
"Had I had any understanding with the Prime Minister or the BJP when I was the Chief Minister, I would not have supported the farmers' agitation and demanded repealing of the agriculture laws and passed law in the Vidhan Sabha against these", Amarinder clarified.
He said as the Chief Minister and Home Minister of Punjab, he was supposed to meet the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister and so were his ministers who would meet their central counterparts.
"Even your new CM has met the PM and the Home Minister, and from your senseless logic then he should also be having an understanding with the BJP and waiting to be sacked", he taunted Chaudhary.
Amarinder Singh said it was for the first time that a party in-charge had made the state as his permanent abode.
"I have worked with 14 party in-charges like Pranab Mukherjee, Mohsina Kidwai, Janaradhan Dwivedi to name a few, and they would rarely interfere, leave aside visiting or settling down in Punjab", he recalled, while pointing out, "a party in-charge is not supposed to settle down in the state he is assigned but to facilitate interaction and feedback to the high command".
But, he added, here is a man, who has been sacked from the government for being named as an accused in a murder case in his home state, and is enjoying "Chief Ministerial power and privileges in Punjab, turning the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi into a rubber stamp, by dictating terms to him".
He said Chaudhary has even been attending the Cabinet and other meetings of officers, which is illegal and unconstitutional.
The former Chief Minister questioned the legality of his getting a ministerial bungalow in Chandigarh and the entire Punjab Bhavan at his disposal, from where he commands and dictates orders to the Chief Minister, other ministers and the officers.
Traffic across Punjab and Haryana is likely to hit badly and see traffic disruptions for several hours as farmers, farm labourers, commission agents, trade and employee unions and activists of political parties squatted on national highways till 4 p.m.
The police said as soon as they received information about Baghel's death, they rushed to the spot and took him to a nearby hospital where the farmer was declared brought dead. After the post-mortem it was learnt that the farmer died due to heart attack.
Among the multiple variants -- DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4 of the dengue virus, DENV 2 or the strain D2 is considered to be the most severe and can even lead to fatal internal bleeding and shock.
The agitated farmers are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws passed by Parliament last year and have expressed apprehension that they would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporate houses.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that she was asking Pakistan to act on terrorism and ensure that terror groups do not target New Delhi or Washington, according to India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
The BJP, which had been politically attacking Amarinder Singh in the last several years, has launched blistering attacks against Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Congress high command (Gandhi family) with the help of Amarinder Singh's recent comments against Sidhu and the Congress.
