Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday termed Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s comments on the alleged scholarship scam as nothing more than the statement of a politician who was in the habit of demanding a CBI probe into any and every case, thus further undermining the agency’s special status, which had already taken a beating under the BJP-led NDA government.
Coming out strongly against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader, the Chief Minister said that instead of using her position as a minister in the Union Cabinet to further Punjab’s interests, Harsimrat spent all her time bending backwards to please her political masters in the NDA alliance at the cost of the welfare of the people of the state.
Not only did her demand for CBI investigation into the alleged scholarship scam expose her total lack of trust in the highly competent and professional police force and administration of the state, it was also against India’s legal and judicial principles, which empowered only the state government to seek a CBI probe where it deemed necessary, said Captain Amarinder.
The Chief Minister said that Harsimrat had no locus standi in the matter and was merely trying to mislead the people of Punjab with her political stunts and motivated statements.
Citing the CBI’s track record in handling major cases in Punjab, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Central agency had failed to solve even a single of the four cases of targeted killings, including that of RSS leader Brigadier (Retd) Jagdish Kumar Gagneja, that were handed over to them by the Akali regime.
Captain Amarinder also lashed out at Harsimrat regarding the sacrilege cases, by first transferring the cases to the Central agency and then manipulating it to file closure reports without even making a pretense of solving them. It is eventually left to Punjab Police to solve these cases, and the force is doing an excellent job of it, with even some senior police officials taken into custody for their involvement, he pointed out.
“If Harsimrat is so keen to protect the interests of the people of Punjab, as she claims to be, why does she not leverage her position in the Central government to put pressure on CBI to return the files to Punjab Police for taking forward the investigation in the sacrilege cases,” the Punjab CM asked.