Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Fridayslammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its criticism of his government’sdecision on debt waiver for farm laborers and landless farmers, saying itexposed Arvind Kejriwal’s party’s anti-farmer stance.
The AAP reaction was on expected lines, considering thatthe party had never shown any interest in doing anything for the farmingcommunity, said the Chief Minister, pointing out that the Kejriwal governmentin Delhi was among the first to notify one of the controversial and draconianFarm Laws of the central government. The fact is that AAP does not care forthe welfare of the agricultural community and is opposed to any decision that is in favor of the farmers said, Captain Amarinder.
Unlike AAP, whose pre-poll promises are nothing but meretheatrics to woo the voters, the Congress government believes in implementingits promises, said the Chief Minister, reminding AAP that the debt waiver forfarm laborers and landless farmers was not an announcement made on the eve ofthe 2022 Assembly polls but a promise contained in the Punjab Congressmanifesto. Despite the severe financial constraints faced by his government andcompounded by the Covid pandemic, he was committed to the implementation ofeach of the 2017 election promises, he asserted.
Ridiculing Kejriwal’s promise of free power units inevery state he is visiting to kick off the party’s poll campaign, the ChiefMinister dubbed the AAP leader as a master of manipulation. Even in Delhi,where AAP government claims to be giving free power, an analysis of the datashows that what the citizens of the national capital are getting in terms ofrelief in power costs was actually less than in Punjab, apart from the factthat the farmers of Delhi had got not a paisa worth of support or relief fromthe Kejriwal government, he added. It was evident, said the Chief Minister,that AAP had manipulated the figures to spread misinformation – an art theyhave mastered.
Captain Amarinder noted that even after 6 years of AAP inpower, the people of Delhi were deprived of even basic amenities like water andhealthcare facilities. The much-touted Delhi model of governance had proved tobe a total failure, he said, adding that neither Punjab nor any other statedwanted a slice of it.