Scorning the Aam Aadmi Party’s ambition to rule the stateas a ‘pipe-dream’, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday said it wasridiculous that a party that is totally faceless in Punjab should talk ofhaving a grand CM face in the 2022 Assembly elections.
“With just a year to go for the Assembly polls, AAP couldnot find a face from Punjab to campaign in the municipal elections and had todrag in non-entities from Delhi for electioneering! And now they claim they’llfind a CM face that will be the pride of Punjab?”, mocked Captain Amarinder.“What can a party which sold off the farmers’ interests by implementing one ofthe Farm Laws in Delhi back in November know of Punjab’s `aan, baan and shaan,”the Chief Minister asked, adding that AAP neither knows nor cares whatPunjabiyat is all about.
Far from learning from their mistakes of the past 5years, AAP continues to blunder its way through Punjab, with absolutely nounderstanding or concern about the problems of its people, he said. “All theysee here is another state to rule, another seat of power. They do not see thepain and the problems of our people,” said Captain Amarinder, adding that AAPis an outsider in Punjab and will remain so as long as it continues to bedisconnected from the state’s ground realities.
The exodus of AAP leaders and members from the party’sPunjab unit over the past 2-3 years is just the tip of the iceberg; the fact isthat they have no roots here, said the Chief Minister. “Arvind Kejriwal’s partyhas no existence outside Delhi, and will soon be wiped out from there too, giventheir shameless collusion with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), at whosebehest they have been trying to befool the lakhs of farmers camping outsidetheir city for more than two months now,” he further said.
The Chief Minister also termed as ludicrous and futileAAP’s persistent attempt to mislead the people with lies on the issue of theAgricultural Reforms committee set up by the Government of India. “These AAPmembers don’t even know that the committee that was formed, and in which Punjabwas included only after I personally wrote to the Centre, was a reformscommittee and not a drafting committee,” he remarked, adding that the party, inits desperation to spread lies, has lost the narrative completely.
“Show me one piece of paper to prove that the Farm Lawswere even mentioned, leave alone discussed, at the two meetings of the reformscommittee held after Punjab was made a member,” Captain Amarinder challengedAAP, dubbing it a party of shameless liars and cheats, with no compunctionabout sacrificing the truth to serve their political purpose.
Punjab neither wants nor needs such a party, said theChief Minister, adding that “neither AAP nor its Delhi model of governance iswelcome in Punjab, which is faring better than the national capital on almostevery key index of development.” With every passing year, Arvind Kejriwal’sgovernment is plunging the national capital lower down into the abyss ofdevastation, in sharp contrast to Punjab, which has seen unprecedented growthand development in the past 4 years, he said. Even the much-touted health modelof Delhi government, which showed a decline by two positions on the HealthIndex from 2015 to 2019, was completely exposed during the Covid peak crisis,he pointed out, calling upon Kejriwal to focus on managing Delhi instead ofwasting precious time and resources in trying to find a footing (or a face) inPunjab or other states.
What Punjab needs is solid and sincere leadership, not aparty of loud-mouth liars and deceivers, he added.