CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab state president and MP Bhagwant Mann on Friday challenged the Congress Party and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), saying they wanted plausible answers of his five questions to each in a live debate to bring forth the whole truth what they had done for the people of Punjab?
He said it was the need of the hour to uncover their anti-farmers and anti-people faces, who claim themselves to be their biggest champions and benefactors, by staging ‘dharnas’ and rallies to earn some brownie points and win favours of the beleaguered farming fraternity, currently on the roads against the deadly laws.
Addressing media persons in Chandigarh on Friday, Bhagwant Mann said the proposed visit of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to Punjab to express his and his party’s solidarity with the protesting farmers, was a mere political gimmickry. He said how would he (Rahul Gandhi) hold a road show in support of the farmers, adding that he was not present in the parliament when the Black laws were being discussed on the floor of the House, which was a clear pointer to the fact that he was serious about the farmers but was a mere armchair sympathiser.
Mann on the occasion said that the Congress party had 51 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 40 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, even it failed to stop safe passage of the controversial Bills by holding a meeting with the President of India urging him not to accord his assent to the anti-farm Bills.
Mann reiterated that when the assembly session was convened on August 28, 2020, the Punjab government had passed a resolution, purportedly to repeal the anti-people farm ordinances and the resolution was required to be forwarded to the Union government, but CM Amarinder Singh kept the same under the wraps. He added that after keeping the same in the Vidhan Sabha office from August 28 to September 14 instead of passing the same on to the union government. Mann said the proposed resolution should have landed the Union Government on the same day before the session of Parliament which began on September 14, 2020, which clearly indicated he (Amarinder Singh) was in cahoot with the Modi Government on the issue of anti-agriculture ordinances.
The AAP MP said that now the Badal family was holding tractor rallies and resorting to other cheap tactics to prove themselves as the true benefactors of farmers and giving a sense that they were opposed to the Agriculture Ordinances when the meeting was held. He questioned the Badal couple to bring the minutes of the meeting to the public domain. “This proves beyond doubt that the Badal duo has played a pivotal role in clearing the passage of the deadly agriculture bills at the cabinet meeting and has supported the bills. Now they (Badals) have planned to mislead the farmers, as is their wont. But the farmers and others in Punjab are fully aware of their political gimmicks played out by the Badals. They will no more fall prey to their wily tricks.”
Bhagwant Mann questioned the SAD leadership saying why it was using shrines and other places of worship to stage ‘dharna’ rallies, saying if the Badals had a modicum of love lost for the farmers, they should go to the farmers and participate in the ‘dharna’, rallies amid heat and dust of the state?
Bhagwant Mann said that the rallies were taken out from the three Takht Sahibs on Thursday and langar was served by the SGPC en route through which the rallies passed by, saying how many times the langar was served to the protesting farmers. Mann asked whenever any calamity had befell the Badal family had misled the people of Punjab by exploiting religious sentiment.
Mann appealed to the farmers' organizations to convene gram sabhas in their respective villages and get a resolution passed against the draconian laws before their implementation. At the same time, Mann exhorted AAP volunteers and office bearers to take part in the ongoing struggle of the farmers, wholeheartedly, so that the dissenting voice read the deaf and tyrannical governments.