Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: After Congress appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the chairman of its Election Committee in Punjab for the 2022 Assembly polls, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday said that he felt sad and bad about Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi over the way he was being treated by the Congress party.
“I feel sad for him that despite having a tremendous potential, he is being made to be subservient to the whims of the PCC president Navjot Sidhu,” Amarinder Singh said while remarking, “Channi will eventually end up as a night watchman only”.
Reacting to the appointment of Sidhu as the chairman of the Congress Election Committee for Punjab, Amarinder said, it was unprecedented that a Chief Minister was made “subservient” to the PCC president.
“No self-respecting leader should accept such humiliation”, the former Chief Minister remarked, while suggesting that Channi should resign than face such humiliation and insult.
He pointed out how the Congress had claimed that it had appointed a Scheduled Caste as the Chief Minister but has now made him “subservient” to the PCC president. “Was he just a showpiece to get the SC votes?” he asked.
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“Just because someone is behaving like a spoilt child and throwing tantrums day in and day out, you are submitting to all his blackmail and in the process insulting and humiliating your Chief Minister, who is doing a good job”, he said, while remarking, “the Congress is going down the dumps”.
Senior leader of Aam Aadmi Party and leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema said that just as CM, Charanjit Singh Channi had become the butt of jokes in Punjab due to his hollow announcements. Sidhu too, had lost his credibility with threats to his own government, Cheema said adding that like other Congressmen, Sidhu is also a power hungry politician and his actions do not match his words.
He, however, congratulated Sidhu on becoming the chairman of Punjab Congress Election Committee. It would be better for him (Sidhu) not to say anything on the issue of mafia and tainted ministers now, because like Channi, he would also be surrounded by the tainted former ministers removed from Channi’s cabinet.
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Cheema said that today, Sidhu, CM Channi and Gandhi family should make it clear to the people of Punjab why the former ministers Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Singh Kangar were removed from the Cabinet? The people also want to know what kind of penitence these former Congress ministers have paid that got them included in the Pradesh Election Committee headed by Sidhu.
Sidhu must answer if Balbir Singh Sidhu has gotten a clean chit in the Gaushala’s multi crore land scam in Mohali. Will Sidhu reveal how Sadhu Singh Dharamsot (then minister) ruined the future of millions of poor SC students in the multi-crore scholarship scam? Instead of sending Dharamsot to jail, Sidhu sits with him like Channi sits with the very symbols of mafia — Rana Gurjeet Singh, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sukh Sarkaria and so on, Cheema asked.
He further asked: Will Sidhu tell the people who gave the ‘corruption-free certificate’ to the then industries and commerce minister Sundar Sham Arora who was facing allegations of usurping assets worth billions just three months ago and Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi who got repeatedly compensated on his land? Cheema scoffed at Sidhu’s previous announcement that “there will either be mafia in Punjab or Sidhu” saying that before talking about whole of Punjab, he (Sidhu) should first decide on his own election committee and asked “will he sit with those tainted and mafia patrons now?”
