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Chandigarh, May 6 –The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said it was good that Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh had realized how “popular” he was in North America following the abysmal failure of his foreign jaunt even as it asked him not to indulge in cheap photo opportunities with farmers in the US when he had no time for farmers in Punjab.
“You have posted a picture of a visit to an almond farm in Fresno. Please tell us when you last visited a farm in Punjab. Do you or your media managers have any such picture?” SAD general secretary and party spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema asked Amarinder.
The akali leader said the truth of the matter was that forget visiting any farm or farmer in Punjab since years, Amarinder had never even taken up any farmer issue in parliament despite being a Lok Sabha mp since two years. “You would well remember what you did for the farming community as chief minister. You withdrew the free power facility extended to them by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. You did nothing to help farmers from being exploited at the hands of money lenders. But now when you are salivating to capture power in Punjab you have suddenly remembered Punjab farmers and even descended to the fields of farmers in the US”.
Stating that the Punjabi community would see through this hypocrisy, Dr Cheema said NRIs abroad knew that it was chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who had introduced the free power facility for farmers. It is the SAD-BJP government which has come out with an indebtness bill which will stop exploitation of farmers at the hands of money lenders. It has also come out with a pension plan for farmers besides disbursing 1.25 lakh tubewell connections. “We have taken concrete steps to improve the well being of farmers and encouraged diversification which has given good results. Leading newspapers have recently highlighted the success stories of diversification of Punjabi farmers be it growing of exotic fruits, vegetables and flowers or piggeries, fisheries and a host of other allied activities. You could have gone to these farmers and praised them for their efforts instead of deriding Punjabi farmers through statements after visiting a farm abroad”, Dr Cheema added.
Stating that Amarinder was not only anti-farmer but also anti employment, the akali leader said Amarinder wanted to take over all village shamlat land and gift it to industrial houses besides freezing all employment. He said how could such a person give sermons on governance. First prove what governance you did as a chief minister except for bestowing clean chits on favourites who broke the law at will and then try to give sermons to us”, he added.
Dr Cheema also pointed out that Amarinder had played a big fraud on his party as well as NRIs by misleading them about the nature of his trip. “You took a tourist visa but told people you would address political gatherings. Isn’t this tantamount to committing a fraud? Your party knows why you went abroad and also with whom you spent most of your time. However you owe an apology to the NRI community for misleading them that you are going to meet them when actually you had planned a secret holiday with friends to the exclusion of even your family”, the SAD leader added.
