In public perception, Capt and Badals hand in glove, says Pargat
CHANDIGARH: After former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Congress MLA Pargat Singh attacked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday for the state government’s sloppy handling and legal setback in the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case.
Pargat, who met the CM along with other MLAs from Doaba region as part of the two-day consultation exercise held by the latter on the emotive issue, said that Capt Amarinder should take responsibility being the home minister of the state. “I told the CM about the perception among the people that he (Amarinder) and the Badal family are hand in glove with each other. We have to work to remove this perception. The new SIT should get cracking and produce results in a time-bound manner by taking action against culprits in these cases,” he said, after attending the meeting.
The Jalandhar Cantonment MLA said the party won the 2017 assembly elections under Capt’s leadership and in his name, but he should now get a survey done to see where his popularity stands today. “It is due to the attempts to cover-up on just about everything… they do not want anyone to speak up,” he said in blistering remarks.
Considered close to Sidhu, Pargat is the second Congress MLA to directly target the CM for failing to deliver justice in the politically sensitive cases in four years. In 2019 also, he had, in a letter to the CM, asked him about the doubts people had about the steps taken by the government to put the culprits in the dock.
On the CM’s challenge to Sidhu to fight the election against him from Patiala, Pargat said such a statement did not befit a leader of his (Amarinder’s) stature. “He should not have talked in this manner. We should not digress from the real issue (justice in sacrilege cases),” he said.
On day two of the chief minister’s meetings, a number of other party MLAs from Majha and Malwa also spoke about the public mood, which, in their words, varied from trust deficit to anger in different parts of the state.
“The MLAs spoke about the loss of face they have suffered. Majha MLAs said this was the only issue in their region. I hope these meetings are not just a formality,” said one of the participants who did not want to be named.
Congress MLAs from Malwa, who met the chief minister on Tuesday, had conveyed to him their apprehensions about the adverse political fallout of the state government’s handling of this issue, if justice is not delivered quickly.
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, advocate general Atul Nanda, director general of police Dinkar Gupta and Justice Mehtab Singh Gill (retired) were also present on both the days.