Chandigarh, November 11, 2016: Coming out forcefully against the baseless and unsubstantiated allegations of the Badal-led Akalis, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarindr Singh on Friday said all MPs from his party had already given their resignations but had been asked to fight out the SYL issue in Parliament itself.
“You should get your facts right,” Captain Amarinder told the Badals, adding that in their hurry to react, they had forgotten even to check out their facts before making unverified allegations against the Congress.
Clearly left panic-stricken by the Supreme Court judgement on SYL, and on the back foot because of their own laxity in the matter, the Badals were blindly shooting in the dark with all kinds of groundless charges, said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president.
Responding to media queries, Captain Amarinder said he had received the resignations from all the MPs on Thursday itself but, in the interest of the SYL matter, had decided not to forward them to the concerned authorities in Parliament. He made it clear that he himself had advised the MPs to stay firmly put in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, as the case may be, in order to fight for the rights of the people of Punjab in the House.
MP Ambika Soni also confirmed that she and the others members of Parliament had given their resignation letters to Captain Amarinder and were simply following his advice in the matter. “We have all been told to fight for the cause of Punjab in Parliament,” she added.
Countering Badals’ charges, Captain Amarinder once again lambasted the state government for selling off the interests of the people of Punjab to promote their own vested interests.
And now they are trying to divert public attention from their gross failure by making baseless charges against the Congress, he said, adding that the total lack of concern shown by the Badals over the plight of the people of the state stands exposed.
“If they are so concerned about the impact of the SYL verdict on Punjab why have the Akali MPs not resigned their parliamentary seats?,” asked Captain Amarinder, adding that the Badal-led Akali government in Punjab was solely responsible for the mess resulting from the SYL issue and could not wriggle out of its accountability to the people by putting the blame on others.
The Punjab Congress chief demanded that Aklai MPs Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Sher Singh Ghubaya should immediately quit their parliamentary seats to prove their interest in resolving the SYL matter in the interest of Punjab. “Till they do that, they really have no face to make allegations against others,” he said.