Form of words:
Chandigarh: Hours after Congress leader Harish Rawat questioned his secular credentials in a non-stop attack, former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said it was motivated by the “pathetic situation” the party has now found itself in. Have got.
“Three weeks before I stepped down as chief minister, I had offered my resignation to Sonia Gandhi, but she asked me to continue,” Singh said in a statement here.
The former chief minister said that the only pressure on him for the past few months was his loyalty to the Congress, due to which he continued to suffer insult after insult.
At a press conference in Dehradun on Friday, Rawat, in-charge of Punjab Congress, had countered Singh, who had said that he would quit the party as he was “totally humiliated”, adding that the Punjab leader should be considered for the BJP. Any attempt must be rejected if they try to make him their mask in the kingdom.
He also said that Singh’s “closeness” with BJP leaders like Amit Shah puts a question mark on his secular credentials.
Reacting to Rawat’s remarks, Singh said that even his worst critics and enemies cannot doubt his honesty in this regard.
“But I am no longer surprised that a senior and experienced Congress leader like Rawat is questioning my secular credentials. It is quite clear that I no longer have the trust and respect in the party that I have served so faithfully for so many years and have been on a winning spree for four and a half years”.
Singh said the humiliating manner in which he was forced to resign a few hours before the CLP meeting was a matter of public record.
“The world has seen the humiliation and humiliation inflicted on me, and yet Mr. Rawat is making claims to the contrary,” he said, “if this was not an insult, what was it?”
Rawat, he said, should put himself in his place, and then, perhaps, “he would realize how humiliating this whole affair was”.
Singh, who dismissed speculations of joining the BJP but said he would quit the Congress, recalled that Rawat himself had publicly said after meeting him that he would take on his (Amarinder Singh) 2017 election promises. Satisfied with the track record of the government.
In fact, Rawat had categorically stated recently on 1 September that the 2022 election would be fought under his (Singh’s) leadership and the high command had no intention of replacing him, he pointed out.
“So, how can he now claim that the party leadership was dissatisfied with me, and if they were, why did they deliberately keep me in the dark all this time?” Singh asked.
“Why was Navjot Singh Sidhu allowed to openly criticize and attack on social media and other public platforms for months if the party did not intend to humiliate him? Why did the party under Sidhu give a free hand to the rebels to curtail my authority?”
“Why was no cognizance given to the uninterrupted race for electoral victory I handed over to the party during four-and-a-half years,” he said.
Singh asked why the Congress was still allowing Sidhu to hold the party for “paying the ransom and stipulating the conditions”.
“What pressure does he put on the party leadership that they are so defenseless against him and allowing him to make his way in Punjab even at the cost of the Congress’s future?” He asked.
Singh also denied allegations that he had refused to meet Charanjit Singh Channi after taking oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
He said that Channi had called him on the day of swearing-in and he was supposed to come, but he did not.
On Rawat not picking up the phone, Singh said it was all baseless.
“We spoke just a day before the CLP meeting was called. Rawat told me that nothing was in the works then and even claimed that he had not seen any letter sent by 43 MLAs. The former Chief Minister said that I am shocked by the way he is lying about this now.
Singh said that as Chief Minister twice and as chief of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) on three occasions, he served as Congress in-charge of Punjab along with stalwarts like Pranab Mukherjee, Motilal Vohra, Mohsina Kidwai, Meira Kumar and Shakeel Ahmed. have worked in.
“I didn’t have a single problem with any of them. I failed to understand Mr Rawat’s behavior and actions,” he said.
Singh rubbished Rawat’s remarks that he was ‘spreading the doctrine of humiliation after meeting Amit Shah’, and pointed out that he did so on the day of his resignation (long before his meeting with the Union Home Minister). ) explicitly stated that he was humiliated thrice by the Congress party, which sidelined him for convening CLP meetings twice in Delhi and last time in Chandigarh, even though he was the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). .
With regard to the implementation of election promises, the former Chief Minister said that contrary to the lies being spoken by Rawat, he fulfilled almost 90 per cent of the promises made in the 2017 election manifesto, which was a matter of record and cannot be denied. Was. With baseless and baseless statements.
a
subscribe our channel youtube And Wire
Why is the news media in crisis and how can you fix it?
India needs free, unbiased, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it is facing many crises.
But the news media itself is in trouble. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism are shrinking, yielding to raw prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the best young journalists, columnists and editors to work for it. Smart and thinking people like you will have to pay a price to maintain this quality of journalism. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can Here.