Can’t you rise above petty politics: Capt Amarinder Singh to AAP

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over their walk-out from the all-party meeting minutes before the resolution in support of the agitating farmers was to be passed, saying this had once again exposed the double standards of Arvind Kejriwal’s party, which continued to put its vested political interests above those of the farmers.

AAP members at the meeting had walked out in protest against the Chief Minister’s refusal to accept their “senseless and patently illegal” demand for deployment of Punjab Police personnel to provide security to the state’s farmers agitating at Delhi borders.

“After pretending for nearly 4 hours that they were one with the rest of Punjab in supporting the farmers in their hour of crisis, the AAP members walked out over a demand which no state government can accept,” pointed out the Chief Minister, adding that “clearly, they had no intention, from the outset, of supporting the state and its farmers, which explains their convenient walkout minutes before the resolution was to be voted on.”

Terming AAP’s actions as part of a well-planned strategy, the Chief Minister said, “How is it possible that a party with pretensions of being a national outfit not know that no state police cannot simply barge into another state?… How can a party that claims to be pro-farmer walk out of a crucial meeting called to evolve a consensus on a critical issue relating to the farmers, over a patently unlawful demand? How can they not support a joint initiative by all parties, which was in the interests of Punjab, if they really care for the state and its people?”

“Their walk-out proves that the AAP is clearly a part of the conspiracy of the ruling BJP to harm the interests of the farmers, who are being victimised, beaten, harassed and treated the enemies of the state at the borders of the national capital, which Kejriwal’s party is in charge of,” said the Chief Minister.

Captain Amarinder noted that this was not the first time AAP had resorted to such doublespeak on the issue of the farm laws in Punjab. “They had backed off even earlier, after supporting the State Amendment Bills in the Vidhan Sabha,” he pointed out, adding that at that time too, AAP leaders had said one thing in the House and another outside.

“Don’t you have any shame?” the Chief Minister asked AAP leadership, adding that their disgraceful behaviour today had sealed the party’s fate in Punjab once and for all.