The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, today alleged that Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has already “surrendered” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s “blackmail” over the farmers’ issue.
In a statement, the SAD chief charged that Capt Amarinder had been summoned by Union home minister Amit Shah to Delhi recently to be told to choose between facing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe and “betraying” the farmers, who have been agitating against the Centre’s controversial farm laws in and around the national capital for several days.
“The choice he (Amarinder) made became clear with the first thing he said as soon as he came out of the meeting with Amit Shah (Union home minister) telling the farmers to end their agitation, citing dangers to national security from this peaceful movement,” Badal claimed.
The SAD chief claimed that everyone in Delhi knew what happened in that strange meeting between Shah and Amarinder. “Amarinder’s legs were shaking before his host holding the ED card and he succumbed to the blackmail on farm Acts even without a fight. Instead of telling the Centre to annul the Acts, he shocked the famers by telling them to withdraw agitation and accept defeat and go home. What does this prove?” asked Badal.
Referring to Amarinder’s “shocking references” to dangers to national security from the farmers’ movement, the SAD president said, “The brave Amarinder merely recited the script given to him by the BJP High Command. He sang it like a parrot.”
He charged that Capt Amarinder’s “cowardly surrender” before the ED and Shah may surprise those who take his “hollow bluster and boastfulness” seriously.
“The fact is that this surrender is nothing new and it is so total and shameless that even an ordinary tehsil-level BJP worker in Punjab can simply barge into Captain’s official and personal bungalows and order him about to get routine things done, while senior Congress leaders and ministers dare not even breathe loudly within 500 yards of his house. Like all bullies, Amarinder is a coward at heart and only needs a bigger bully to expose this cowardice,” said Badal.
The Punjab CM had yesterday said he was not scared of the ED or anyone else and slammed all the Opposition parties in the state for playing politics with the lives of the farmers to further their own interests.
Capt Amarinder’s son Raninder Singh has been facing a case for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Raninder was questioned by the ED in 2016 and was asked to explain the alleged movement of funds to Switzerland and the creation of a trust besides a few subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands. Raninder has denied any wrongdoing.