Amarinder, MLAs quit; demand early elections
Friday, 11/11/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
CHANDIGARH: It was a poll punch the Punjab Congress had been waiting for. Minutes after the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal on Thursday, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, whose government had passed the controversial Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, resigned from his Lok Sabha seat of Amritsar, along with party’s 42 MLAs.
As a battle of one-upmanship raged on over the SYL issue ahead of next year’s polls, Amarinder had announced mass resignation by Congress legislators after chief minister Parkash Singh Badal tried to steal his thunder by passing a law in this year’s budget session to return the land acquired on its side for the construction of the SYL canal to the farmers. It was contested by Haryana in the apex court to obtain a status quo.
At a hurriedly convened press conference, Amarinder also demanded imposition of President’s rule and early elections in December. “Badal is a mischievous character who will try to foment trouble in the state for vested interests. The Akalis have sold off Punjab’s interests to Haryana and failed to defend the state in the court. The people of Punjab will not forgive them and Badal will now try to cause trouble. Even terrorist groups from across the border could exploit the situation to create mayhem ahead of the elections. To avoid this, the state should be immediately placed under the Governor’s rule and elections should be held by December,” he said.
The former CM said he had sent his resignation to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and also sought a meeting with her next week. The party MLAs have also sent resignations to assembly speaker Charnjit Singh Atwal and will meet him on Friday to hand over their papers. In his resignation, Amarinder said: “I have decided to quit as a mark of protest against the deprivation of the people of my state of the much-needed Sutlej river water.”
‘KEJRIWAL’S STAND?’
Amarinder also trained his guns on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and asked him to clarify his stand on the SYL canal issue in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict.
“Given the fact that he hails from Haryana and is the chief minister of Delhi, will Kejriwal allow the water from Punjab to be diverted to Haryana and Delhi, or will he stand by the people of Punjab in their hour of need? His flip-flop on the issue has exposed his lack of sincerity towards the interests of Punjab. It’s time he takes a clear and categorical stand,” he said.
Though Amarinder did not criticise the SC judgement saying the party accepts it as it is the law of the land, he was quick to add that he has sought a legal opinion and a government is empowered to enact a fresh legislation to remove the substratum or foundation of any judgment passed by a court of law with retrospective operation. “The party will go to the people over the issue. We will bring in a fresh act to protect Punjab’s interests after returning to power with two-thirds majority,” he added.
Until that happens, the party hopes to reap poll dividends from its aggressive posturing on the emotive issue.
