Express News Service
The ED raids and allegations against Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of involvement in illegal sand mining have come after the announcement of Assembly elections and are nothing but political vendetta, Congress state president Navjot Singh Sidhu told Harpreet Bajwa in an interview. Excerpts:
Q: What are the chances of Congress returning to power? How many seats do you give to your party?
A: The Congress will win at least 70 seats in the 117-member Assembly in the coming elections if a clear agenda for the state is incorporated in the manifesto. There is an election on every seat and when we fight 117 elections, there are challenges on each seat.
Q: As of now, it seems no political party will be able to get a clear mandate.
A: Just wait for ten days. The people of the state will give a clear mandate to the party which gives a clear roadmap. They will not waste their votes on spent cartridges like Captain Amarinder Singh and others.
Q: What are your comments on ED raids in connection with sand mining at various places, including CM Channi’s nephew’s premises?
A: The ED took action after nearly four years of the registration of the case. Were they sleeping for four years? When the assembly elections were announced, then the raids were conducted.
Q: CM Channi is alleged to be involved in sand mining, but there is no condemnation from your side. Are you giving a clean chit to him by questioning the timing of the ED raids?
A: I am not giving any clean chit. Let the law take its course. If you can prove a link, then I will be the first one to criticise. But if you are indulging in political vendetta, then I am not with you. I know the ED, the CBI and other agencies have been used politically…Today it is clear that it is political vendetta.
Q: Your opponents say you are terming ED raids as vendetta but justifying the case registered against SAD leader Bikramjit Singh Majithia under NDPS Act. The SAD is accusing you of political vendetta.
A: It is absolutely trash. It is a 2018 case. The ED had started the investigations against Majithia… The ED and Special task Force reports were submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Amarinder Singh (former CM) was protecting him.
Q: You have been asking the party to declare a CM face. Do you think you should be named CM candidate?
A: I am not here for any post. My only aspiration is to implement the ‘Punjab model’. If a roadmap to resurrect Punjab is there, I am there. Yes, if a post allows me to take decisions and the high command empowers me, I will do justice to that post, be it a minister, PPCC chief or anything.
Q: How you rate the performance of 111 days of Channi government?
A: It is just a trailer. A film will be run.
Q: There has been infighting in your party. It was there in 2012 and 2017 polls also. This time, the internal feud has intensified. How will you control it?
A: Which party doesn’t have infighting? The leaders in AAP are also fighting among themselves.
Q: Many Congress leaders have been lobbying for tickets for their family members. Your comments?
A: Only one ticket per family for the coming assembly polls will be given. This is the rule of the party high command.
Q: Many of your party leaders, including a few ministers, have objected to your style of functioning.
A: With my style of functioning, I became the PPCC president and before that a Member of Parliament several times.
Q: BJP tried to change the narrative of these elections by raring the issue of PM security lapse but at ground level it seems to have benefitted congress, your comments?
A: What narrative it was 700 people, 70,000 empty chairs. People understand everything. The prime minister is very dear to me as he is India’s Prime Minister and when he comes here, we have to respect him. When farmers were sitting for more than year, then nobody spoke as they were termed Khalistanis and called names. But nobody was able to defame them. We are very well knit in the socio-economic fabric of Punjabiyat.
Q: The Punjab model you have been advocating is your model or that of the party? Will it see the light of the day?
A: I will meet Congress leader and manifesto committee chairman Partap Singh Bajwa regarding the poll manifesto and it will be released in the coming days.
Q: How can you implement your ‘Punjab Model’ as the same leaders and faces have been given tickets by your party against whom questions were raised and allegation made?
A: Has the Akali Dal got ‘totally clean’ leaders? ‘Rejected’ leaders of the Congress went to AAP. There are the good, the bad and the ugly in every party. I give solutions and do not talk about problems. The system that has been eating Punjab for last 25 years has to be broken and a new one has to be put in place. Once you make Sand Corporation, then no sand theft can take place as rates will be fixed. Hooch tragedies are taking place as there is excise theft of `5,000 crore. Once all these cartels are broken, these people will be finished. You have to re-invent and create a system which takes care of the state’s resources and gives the money to the exchequer.
Q: What you have to say on agriculture diversification, as it is the need of the hour?
A: The central government gives MSP on only two crops to our farmers — wheat and paddy. For growing one kg of paddy 5,000 litres of water is needed. Our farmers take loan to install tube wells. After 20 years, Punjab will be a barren land. My roadmap for crops is not new. Diversification is the need of the hour as we consume only 8 per cent of the paddy we grow in Punjab. The central government has reduced PDS cover from 70 crore to 40 crore people and is finishing Food Corporation of India. If voted to power, our government will give MSP on oil seeds and lentils and bring market intervention scheme for maize. We will also allow farmers to store wheat and paddy in the state warehousing corporation godowns for a few months and give him 80 per cent loan on the produce stored. One cold storage for every five villages will be opened for storing vegetables so that farmers can store their produce and sell later at good rates. Subsidy will be given to farmers on the labourers they employ.
Q: In Punjab Model, you talk about sports. Neighbouring Haryana is doing very well in this compared to Punjab.
A: It is very simple that political will is needed in this and not so much money. We wish to want to acquire village common lands and have baseball, volleyball and courts there, besides make akhara for wrestling. For every five villages, we envisage a stadium where there is facility for athletics and running mat for rubbers and a small astroturf. Besides, we will set up one sports academy each in Majha, Malwa and Doaba regions and give scholarship to children till university level who play well. This is called ‘catch them young’.
