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.
Rahul Gandhi met Channi along with the party's Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat and General Secretary K.C. Venugopal late on Thursday. Before that, Rahul held a separate meeting with Rawat.
According to orders, he would also be the Principal Secretary, Personnel and Vigilance, besides Financial Commissioner, Development, and Principal Secretary, Food Processing, Horticulture and Governance Reforms and Public Grievances.
Senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema on Tuesday said it was most unfortunate that even after admitting that some wrong elements wanted to defame the 'kisan sangharsh', Rajewal had neither secured an unconditional apology from those guilty of hooliganism nor subjected them to the process of law.
The Prime minister further said that the visit would be an occasion to consolidate relations with our strategic partners - Japan and Australia - and to take forward our collaboration on important global issues. In a departure statement, the Prime Minister said he will be visiting the US from September 22-25 at the invitation of President Joe Biden.
The Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it is an important development in support of reaching the 40 per cent vaccination target in all countries by the end of this year.
The charge made by the BJP functionary comes a day after Kejriwal during his visit to poll-bound Goa on Tuesday, announced 80 per cent reservation in private sector jobs, Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 doles for the unemployed youth and families who have lost employment due to Covid respectively as well as setting up of a Skill university in the state.
