Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Punjab Pradesh Congress President, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, today called upon the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal to explain to the people the reason for the latest discrimination by his own Narendra Modi government at the centre in the matter of denial of special financial allocation to the state.
He said what was all the more strange that Punjab had not only been kept out from special assistance but also excluded from the category of the states facing financial crisis which had been given special assistance that included neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh also. He reminded Mr Badal that under the UPA, Punjab was among the three states including Kerala and Bengal which had been identified as the ones suffering from staggering debt and the Dr Manmohan Singh government had laid the roadmap for recovery of these states. However, while nine more states had been added to this category, Punjab had been excluded.
“You have been alleging discrimination by the Congress governments at the centre against Punjab for decades but here is your own government which has dealt the severest blow. Why don’t you withdraw your daughter-in-law Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Modi cabinet in protest? In case you don’t, it would clearly imply that the state interests are not dear to you and what are important for you are your family interests”, he told Mr Badal.
He reminded Mr Badal he had been propagating as the coming into power of the BJP government at the centre as the panacea for all ills afflicting the centre on the logic that the state had been the victim of discriminatory policies of the UPA government. It was the UPA government that had put Punjab in the category of high debt states. Now his own government had excluded Punjab while including nine other states.
He said he would now not like to back to Mr Badal’s refrain of truckloads of money coming to Punjab as he had already been exposed thoroughly for misleading the people. He said Mr Badal owed a public apology for misleading the people. The Chief Minister should have the courage to admit that the partnership with the BJP at the centre was in the interest of his family rather than the state, he added.
