Capt questions Jaitley’s silence on killing of innocents during militancy
Saturday, 05/04/2014
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AMRITSAR: Former chief minister and Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh has questioned BJP candidate Arun Jaitley’s silence over the killing of 35,000 innocent people during militancy in Punjab.
The former chief minister favoured that a memorial be raised to all the innocents who were killed in Punjab during the decade-long militancy.
“By remaining silent, is Jaitley trying to appease his Akali patrons or is he scared of them lest it annoys them,” Amarinder said at a press conference here on Friday.
Later reacting to Amarinder’s statement, Jaitley said, “Certainly it should be made and Capt Amarinder should have made it when he was the chief minister for five years.”
Earlier, referring to the SGPC honouring the assassins of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and of former chief minister Beant Singh, Amarinder said such ‘honours’ on killers of Congress leaders were bestowed every year. The SGPC is a religious body that is controlled by the SAD of which the BJP is an ally, he added. “The BJP and Jaitley owed an answer to the people,” he said.
“There must be a memorial so that the people know how much Punjab suffered and they learn lessons from such incidents,” he added.
Amarinder also questioned chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s “double standards” saying while Badal got a memorial constructed to those who were killed while fighting the security forces during Operation Bluestar, he was opposed to a similar memorial to those who were targeted by militants.
He said he was not in favour of raising such issues, but was left with no option when Badal started digging into Bluestar.
While targeting Amarinder, Jaitley said, “The regret is that all Congress leaders, including Capt saab, are running away from the real issues. They are quiet on issues like economy, corruption and scams and are more interested in personal comments. I would like Capt Saab to talk about his vision for the constituency and key issues faced by the nation.”
“I have already rolled out my agenda for Amritsar and other sensitive issues on the social media. I will stick to that,” he said.
Accusing Amarinder of being ‘inaccessible’, Jaitley said, “I am more accessible than my opponent. At least I will not hide behind the durbar gates.”
