Not scared of ED or anyone else: Capt Amarinder

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 4

Asserting that he was not scared of the ED or anyone else, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday slammed all opposition parties in the state for playing politics with the lives of the farmers to further their own interests.

He and the Congress was solidly with farmers and the Centre must listen to them and accept their demands, said the Chief Minister, lambasting all key opposition players — Prakash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Harsimrat, Arvind Kejriwal and ML Khattar, a press release by the state government read.

“For 13 years, I have been going to courts because of the cases initiated against me by the Badals. I am not bothered about ED. I can go to courts and fight for another 13 years,” he said, reacting to Harsimrat Badal’s charge that he was under ED pressure.

The Chief Minister, in his meeting on Friday, said he had told Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the amendment Bills passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha were the solution to breaking the deadlock over the farmers’ issue as they were the essence of the state’s future.

“I urged him to get the Bills approved  by the President,” he said, adding that yesterday was the third time he met Shah, including once to congratulate him becoming Home Minister and the other two times for the sake of Punjab.

Taking about the Akalis’ stand on the Farm Laws, the Chief Minister, in a live video statement on Facebook, said the Badals had publicly done a U-turn on the issue.

“I don’t know why Prakash Singh Badal got the Padma Bhushan in the first place,” he quipped, reacting to Badal Senior’s decision to return the medal to the Government of India.

Noting that Gen Harbaksh Singh had got Padma Vibhushan for winning the 1965 war, Captain Amarinder asked “What war did Prakash Singh Badal fight or what sacrifice did he make for the community.”

“All his life, Prakash Singh Badal has been claiming that he represents the interests of the farmers. Then why did his party support the central Ordinances after initially opposing them, and then did an about-turn and started publicly criticising the legislations?” remarked the Chief Minister.

Captain Amarinder pointed out that as a member of the Union Cabinet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal had been very much a part of the meeting that passed the farm ordinances.

Lashing out at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for twisting his statement on national security, the Chief Minister said it was clearly made in reference to Pakistan and as the Home Minister of Punjab, it was his duty to apprise the Union Home Minister of the dangers of the prolonged agitation.

Even old farmers were not spared by the Khattar government, he observed, citing the violence used against the farmers in Haryana. Noting that the Kisan Unions had announced their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march in advance, he said they should have been called for talks, but instead, they were subjected to water cannons and teargas shells.

Pointing out that when the farmers sat on Punjab’s railway tracks for two months, not a single stone was pelted, Captain Amarinder said “our farmers have toiled and given their lives to feed the nation”.

His government did not take any steps against the agitating farmers as “I knew what’s in their hearts,” he added.

Had Punjab’s farmers not saved India and had the Green Revolution not happened, India would have been much different today, he added. He pointed out that the agitating farmers have the support not only of Indians but also from abroad.