Captain Amarinder accuses Kejriwal of befooling people

Thursday, 25/02/2016

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Chandigarh : Ahead of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Punjab on Thursday, the state Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Wednesday alleged that Delhi Chief Minister failed to keep a majority of promises he made to the electorate and accused him of “befooling” people. Amarinder was referring to Kejriwal’s statement after becoming the Delhi Chief Minister, that it would not be bad if his government fulfilled even “about half the promises”, made before the polls, in five years. “If your intentions are such that you really don’t mean to fulfil all the promises, then why make such promises in the first instance and befool the people. This is wilful cheating,” he said.

Kejriwal’s visit is part of the AAP’s ‘Punjab Dialogue’ aimed at studying various issues for preparing the party’s manifesto for the 2017 Assembly polls. Terming ‘Punjab Dialogue’ as a show of “political theatrics”, Amarinder said, “It is quite natural for a party which has no roots but just a few shoots in Punjab to struggle to identify the issues.” “If you really don’t know what issues and problems are ailing Punjab you really don’t have any right to claim to represent Punjabis,” he said, adding “if you think of bringing half-hatched eggs from outside for the local mule ducks to hatch here, you will be badly disappointed.” Amarinder said AAP claims to go to each and every of the 12,581 villages in Punjab to seek opinion of the people and find out the issues which is virtually impractical and impossible. “Do you really prepare manifestos like that,” he asked. “You really don’t need to visit 12,581 villages to know about the problems of people as everybody everywhere knows what is ailing Punjab.” “That is why I have been insisting that Punjab cannot afford any new experiment with the people,” he said. 

Channi too cries foul

Jalandhar : Punjab Congress Legislature (CLP) Party leader Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday said that the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had failed miserably in providing jobs to the youth. Channi said that unemployment in Punjab has become a major problem due to drug abuse and Kejriwal was befooling the youth by making false promises. The CLP leader shared figures provided by Dr Jasdeepak Singh under RTI Act from the Delhi Government’s Directorate of Employment to vindicate the fact. 

Sharing the findings of the RTI, Channi said that since February 2015, when the Kejriwal government came to power, employment was provided to only 117 persons through ‘online employment’ while 1300 persons got jobs through job summits. “The total number of unemployed youth registered with the directorate till date was 13,49,794. The figure for the period from February 2015 to till date was 1, 34, 663. The employment rate was a meager .014 percent, which was negligible as compared to the registered job seekers with the employment exchange”, he said. 

Talking about the failure of Kejriwal on the job front, Channi said that how could he talk about providing employment to youth in Punjab? “After befooling the youth of Delhi, Kejriwal was now heading to Punjab without realizing that unemployment in Punjab was a grave problem, as the youth was ruined due to drug addiction,” he said. The CLP leader along with senior congress leaders from Doaba was in Jalandhar to meet Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans at his residence. He said that besides, unemployment, agrarian crisis coupled with farmer suicides was one of the major problems in the state. “AAP lacked a blueprint for Punjab, as its leaders were outsiders in the state politics,” he added. 

Earlier congratulating Hans Raj Hans for joining the party, the CLP leader said that now the entire Dalit community which was the backbone of congress was united to support them. “With the support of the Dalit community of Doaba which comprises of 37 different castes, the congress would form the next government under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh,” he maintained. He was all praise for Capt Amarinder Singh and termed him a visionary, a transparent person with a humble approach to lead the state. “At least, Capt Amarinder has no ‘hidden agendas’ like other politicians and was transparent with his cadre,” he said. 

Kaypee’s conspicuous absence

Senior Congress leader and former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee, who has his eyes set on Jalandhar (West) assembly seat, was conspicuous by his absence. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Hans Raj Hans, who was then an SAD candidate, was pitted against Kaypee from Jalandhar parliamentary seat and Kapyee had won the seat with a huge margin of votes. However, now Kaypee is eyeing the Jalandhar (West) seat but Hans has joined the party too, adding to obvious fight for the ticket. When asked about Kaypee, Channi said, “He was away to Delhi for some personal function.”