Patiala, November 15, 2017 :
The seven months stint of Capt. Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister has established one fact beyond any doubt that for the first time Punjab is donning a non-performing and reluctant Chief Minister. It is strange phenomenon that he is avoiding to meet the general public in his office, the elected legislators and MPs, the visiting foreign dignitaries and the Chief Ministers of the Indian States to discuss the issues confronting the State and its people. The schedule of his weekly engagements has never been made public so far, detailing his office hours and also notifying the time slot as to when and where the general public could meet him for the redressing of their grievances is still a mystery.
His refusal to meet his Delhi counterpart MR. Arvind Kejriwal is not only a monumental blunder; it smacks of a despicable royal hubris and also the stark infringement of the cherished values of Parliamentary democracy. The Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Kejriwal has not solicited a meeting with him for any personal favor but to discuss the alarming issue air pollution in Delhi and elsewhere caused by the persistent smog. Delhi is the capital of India and to address the severe health emergency there is a shared responsibility of all the States. No Chief Minister alone can address the issues concerning environment. It sounds unethical on the part of Punjab Chief Minister to refuse a meeting to the Chief Minister of Delhi, who was in Chandigarh to share the severity of the health emergency with his neighborly counterparts in the dire need of their help to resolve the problem faced by Delhi residents that includes millions of people from Punjab.
This kind of condescending behavior of the Punjab Chief Minister deserves a public disdain in a severest possible manner. His hollow act has cast serious reflection on the collective wisdom of the people of Punjab and it certainly does not commensurate with the ethos of Punjabis; who are always ready to help anybody in the need of the hours of reckoning.