Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tarun Chughremarks on his `Army background’ as reprehensible, Punjab Chief MinisterCaptain Amarinder Singh on Saturday quipped, “what does the BJP or itsleadership know of Army honour or the grace of the national flag, in which thebodies of our Punjabi brothers come wrapped from the borders every second day?”
“We in Punjab know the pain of seeing the bodies of oursons and brothers, wrapped in the national flag, come home every second day,”he said, adding that the BJP clearly has no empathy or sensitivity towards thesoldiers losing their lives to protect India’s honour and integrity. NeitherChugh nor his party could relate to the anguish of those very soldiers onseeing their farmer fathers and brothers being beaten up and teargassed whilefighting for their rights, said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister slammed Chugh for deliberately spreadinglies on an issue relating to the honour of the brave Indian soldiers fightingfor the safety and security of the nation at the borders. Lambasting the BJPnational general secretary over his remarks on the ‘Republic Day grace’, hesaid the BJP, which had systematically ripped the Constitutional fabric apartover the past 6 years and most notably over the draconian Farm Laws, had lostall moral and ethical right to talk of the honour of the R-day.
“What was wrong in my statement that “maligning the farmers(for the Red Fort violence) could cause the morale of the armed forces, 20% ofwhich is from Punjab, to go down? How does that amount to insulting theRepublic Day grace and my own Army background?” asked an angry CaptainAmarinder, hitting out at Chugh for misleading the people with baselessallegations.
“What happened to the grace of the R-day when the CentralGovernment, which the BJP leads, trampled over the federal and Constitutionalrights of the states to unilaterally bring in the Farm Ordinances withoutconsulting anyone? Where is the grace in letting the poor farmers, who arefeeding you along with the billion plus people of India every day, shiver outin the cold on the roads, with many of them dying out there?”, CaptainAmarinder asked.
Reacting to Chugh’s unfounded accusations that he hadbacked those who had insulted the tricolour at the Red Fort, Captain Amarinderpointed out that far from supporting anyone involved in the Red Fort violencein any way, “I was among the first to outright condemn the violence and thedishonour to the symbol of independent India.”
Reiterating, however, that he did not believe it was thefarmers who created the trouble, the Chief Minister pointed out that it wasmiscreants, including BJP’s own supporters, who were seen inciting the troubleat the historic Red Fort in the national capital on the Republic Day. He reiteratedhis demand for a thorough probe into the incident to expose the conspiracy andunveil the role, if any, of any political party or any third country.
Terming Chugh’s unfounded allegations as a clear attempt tocover up his own party’s role in the incident, and also in the subsequentdevelopments, including yesterday’s attack on peacefully protesting farmers atthe Singhu border, the Chief Minister said the BJP, in its desperation todivert public attention from the genuine plight and struggle of the farmers,was resorting to all kinds of theatrics and lies.
The Chief Minister also came down heavily on the BJP leaderover his remarks on the law and order situation in the state. For months, thefarmers agitated peacefully in Punjab, where some of them are even now sittingin protest, without any trouble, he pointed out, adding that the BJP wanted tosee trouble in the state with an eye on next year’s Assembly elections. “Whyelse would they try to undermine the growing Pakistan and China threats, and theincreasing number of incidents of weapons being smuggled into Punjab throughdrones,” he asked, warning the ruling party against compromising the nation’ssafety and security for its own petty political gains.