Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh targeted his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal for exploiting the ongoing agitation of the farmers to further the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) petty electoral agenda in Punjab with "blatant lies and brazenly false propaganda".
Cornering Kejriwal, the Punjab Chief Minister went on to call the AAP chief a "shameless liar".
"In sharp contrast to the Kejriwal government in Delhi, which had been thriving on Amb crumbs and had been touting its power reforms under the Reliance-run BSES as its biggest achievement, the Punjab government had neither signed any agreement with Ad Power nor was even aware of the private players bidding for power purchase in the state," Captain Amarinder said in an official release.
Responding to Kejriwal's announcement that he will hold a one-day fast in support of farmers, the Punjab Chief Minister quipped: "In fact, the Kejriwal government that was shamelessly notifying one of the "black farm laws" on November 23, at a time when farmers were preparing to march to Delhi to protest these very farm laws. And now they are indulging in theatrics by announcing that they would be sitting on fast in support of the farmers' hunger strike on Monday."
He further alleged that Kejriwal and his party are "busy playing politics" while farmers are sitting outside the national capital for the past 17 days to seek justice.
"Do you have no shame? At a time when our farmers are braving the winter cold on the roads outside your city, and many of them are dying fighting for their rights, all you can think of is how to make the most of the opportunity to promote your political interests," he said.
Pointing out that Punjab had been purchasing additional power to support farmers during the sowing season for years, Captain Amarinder said it was obvious that Kejriwal and his party "neither knew nor cared about what goes into sowing or what the needs of the farmers are".
"From backstabbing the farmers by implementing one of the black farm laws, to trying to dump them in a corner of Delhi, Kejriwal had proved time and again that he was no friend of the farmers," he added.
Hundreds of farmers have been protesting on the outskirts of Delhi since late November 26 demanding the government to repeal the newly enacted farm laws. However, the government has held six rounds of talks with farmers' orgsations including the meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah offering changes to the laws and written assurances.
( With inputs from ANI )
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