Preneet Kaur allays UK based NRIs’ fears about Indo-Pak war

PATIALA, October 7: Senior Congress leader and former Minister of State for External Affairs, Ms Preneet Kaur has allayed the apprehensions of the NRI community based in the United Kingdom about possible war between India and Pakistan.

“Rest assured there will be no war between the two countries”, she said, while addressing the questions and concerns of the NRI community during an interaction in Glasgow on Wednesday night. She said, the BJP government was unnecessarily creating war hysteria for political ends.

She also urged the NRI community to ensure that they support the Congress party as it was the question of Punjab’s survival. “It is matter of social, economic, agricultural and industrial survival of Punjab which is at stake”, she told an impressive Punjabi NRI audience.

She said, only the Congress party under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh was in a position to steer Punjab through the crisis it has been pushed into by ten years of Akali-BJP misrule. She said, while economically Punjab was destroyed, the Akalis had devastated Punjab socially by pushing an entire generation of youth into drugs.

Ms Kaur warned them against the alluring promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “Beware of AAP and what it has done to Delhi”, she said, while urging them to cross check with the relatives and friends living in Delhi. “What Akalis did to Punjab in ten years, the AAP did to Delhi in one year”, she said, while referring to the misrule of the AAP in Delhi.

The former union minister also allayed the fears of the Punjabi NRI community about war between India and Pakistan. “While it was a fact that Pakistan was sending trained terrorists into Indian territory, our army had given a befitting reply to them”, she informed.

However, she regretted that the BJP government at the centre was trying to take undue political advantage by creating war hysteria. “Thousands of people had been moved out of Punjab villages despite the fact that there was no sign of war which will never be” she said while referring to Capt Amarinder Singh’s recent visit to border areas, and added, “It was quite unbecoming of a ruling party to go for chest thumping for our army’s achievements.”