A day after Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman targeted Congress over Hoshiarpur incident, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched a counter-attack on BJP saying that a police investigation is underway and the accused have been arrested, unlike Hathras case.
“A 6-year-old child of a Dalit migrant labourer from Bihar is raped, killed and body half-burnt in Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and it doesn’t shake the conscience of the brother & sister who rush to every other place which can help them politically,” she had said taking a swipe at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who visited the family of Hathras victim’s family.
However, Amarinder Singh rejected Sitharaman’s charge and accused the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of inaction in the gang rape and murder of Dalit woman in UP’s Hathras district.
Asserting that his government had taken swift action in the Hoshiarpur rape-murder incident, the CM on Sunday said the challan in the case will be presented in court this week.
The Chief Minister pointed out that prompt action had been taken by the Punjab Police and the accused had been caught without delay, unlike in Hathras. “That was why Rahul Gandhi had to rush to Hathras to secure justice for the victim’s family and did not need to visit Hoshiarpur,” he added while interacting informally with media persons here.
Asked to comment on Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks on ‘selective outrage’, he reiterated that had the Punjab Government or Police failed to respond with swiftness in the Hoshiarpur case, Rahul, Priyanka and others would have reacted the same way as they did in the case of Hathras.
The Chief Minister denied that Navjot Singh Sidhu had been sidelined in Punjab Congress, quipping, in response to a question, that “who said Navjot Sidhu is sidelined?” On being asked about the Enforcement Department (ED) summoning his son Raninder Singh, Captain Amarinder said it was not the first time the agency had issued summons to his family.
Ridiculing the Akali allegations of him being hand in glove with the central government on the farm laws issue, the Chief Minister remarked that “everyone knows who is colluding with whom.” “It is the Akalis who are mixed up with the BJP, they quit NDA under pressure but are still working together,” he said, adding that Harsimrat Badal was involved in the introduction of the farm Ordinances and was a cabinet minister at the time these were brought in by the Union Government.
“What did the Akalis do? My government brought the resolution/Bills in Vidhan Sabha to reject the central laws,” he added. Pointing out that the fight was with the central government, Captain Amarinder reiterated his appeal to the farmers to stage protest dharnas in Delhi and not in Punjab, where economic activity was being threatened by their blockade.
His ministers were in talks with farmer unions to resolve the problem, he said, pointing to the fact that only one day’s coal stocks and 10% Urea were available with the state. The option to buy power from the national grid did not exist since the state had no money, he added, in response to a question.