Rejecting as completely baseless and malicious all allegations and reports to the contrary, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday said there was no question of deputing police officers to negotiate with farmers protesting at the Delhi border.
Pointing out that he had made it categorically clear that the ball was in the Centre’s court, with the Punjab Government having no role to play in the negotiations with farmers, the Chief Minister ridiculed the charges being flaunted by Akali and AAP leaders on the basis of unfounded reports in a small section of the media.
With farmer protests going on in his State since long before the agitation started at the Delhi border, he had naturally asked police officers to give him regular intelligence reports and updates on the situation not just from the national capital but also across Punjab, Capt Amarinder pointed out, trashing the twisted and senseless interpretation being given to the presence of a few Punjab Police personnel at the farmers’ protest site. It was the job of the state police to keep tabs on the evolving situation, and it was his job, as both Chief Minister and Home Minister, to remain updated about all developments, he added.
“Anyone who believes that a couple of police officers can negotiate with the farmers or persuade the Kisan leaders to accept the Centre’s suggestions on amendments to the Farm Laws is really naive,” the Chief Minister remarked. And where is the question of him (Capt Amarinder) coming into a negotiation process in which the top central government leadership is currently engaged?, he asked.
He said both Sukhbir Singh Badal and Arvind Kejriwal, as well as their party colleagues, were resorting to lies and deceit in their desperation to cover up their own failures in the entire crisis triggered by the Farm Laws.
Pointing to Sukhbir’s ridiculous claim that the resolutions passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha against the three farm bills had not been sent to the Governor, he quipped that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president had clearly lost it. “Or perhaps he is suffering from serious amnesia since his party colleagues, including his own brother-in-law Bikram Majithia, had accompanied me to the Governor’s House for submitting the resolution and the three State Amendment Bills,” remarked the Chief Minister, advising Sukhbir to seek medical help for his problem.
Taking a dig at the contradictory remarks of Sukhbir and his wife, former Union Minister Harsimrat Badal, on the Governor assent issue, Captain Amarinder termed it a classic case of Charles Darwin’s missing link, which the Akalis seem to be suffering from.
Unlike the Akalis and AAP, which had made drastic U-turns, the Punjab Congress and his government had a very clear and consistent stand on the central Farm Laws, said the Chief Minister, adding that his government had supported the farmers’ stance on the issue from the outset and continued to do so. “The farmers and the people of Punjab are not going to be taken in by your fabrications and drama,” he said, warning Sukhbir and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal to stop indulging in false propaganda to push their political agenda.
HOW MUCH WILL YOU WAIT TO GET BILLS PASSED BY PB ASSEMBLY IMPLEMENTED, HARSIMRAT ASKS CAPT AMARINDER
Former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to tell Punjabis how much longer he would wait before exercising legal options to ensure the three Agricultural Bills, passed unanimously in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha eighty days back to counter the ill effects of the hated central Agricultural laws, were forwarded to the President for assent by the State Governor.
“Going by the current scenario you seem to have even forgotten you initiated the move to get the three Bills passed in the State assembly in the same manner in which a resolution rejecting the erstwhile Farm Ordinances was also passed but never forwarded to the centre”, Harsimrat told the chief minister in a statement here.
She said the go slow policy adopted by the chief minister on pursuing the three Bills whose implementation would put Punjab out of the purview of the anti-Punjab and anti-farmer central Agricultural laws clearly indicated that he was purposely delaying action on the issue. “The recent manner in which you have bent over backwards to please the central government and even registered attempt to murder cases against Punjabis speaking out against Punjab BJP leaders gives credence to reports that you are being remote controlled by the union home ministry for reasons best known to you”.
Asking the chief minister not to adopt double standards on this crucial issue which concerned the future of the peasantry of Punjab, the Bathinda MP said “you should spell out what legal options you have taken since the last eighty days to ensure justice is done to the farmers of Punjab in the case. If you have done nothing, which is the case, you should explain why you have failed the farmers of Punjab yet again”.
The former union minister also pointed out that the chief minister could not wait endlessly for the Governor who was sitting on the Bills and not referring them to the President and still brazenly claim that the central laws had not been implemented in Punjab. Badal said the truth of the matter was already before the people. “Your food and civil supplies minister admitted in a press conference that outsiders would be allowed to sell their produce in Punjab with the implementation of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 in the State. Your government also amended the APMC Act in 2017 which contains all the provisions of the three central Agri Acts. In such a situation you need to come clean and tell Punjabis why you are not taking any concrete steps to get the three Agri Bills passed by the Vidhan Sabha implemented”, she added.