Harsimrat should resign as Union minister, says Khaira
The state leader of Opposition says the minister has failed to secure rights of Punjab, despite being a cabinet minister in Modi government
JALANDHAR: Condemning the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) Union government for ignoring Punjab and giving tax exemption to industries in the Himalayan states till March 2027, state leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira has asked Union food and processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to resign from her post on Thursday.
He said that she has failed to secure the right of the state, despite being a cabinet minister in the Modi government. Khaira was addressing a press conference here.
He said, “Being a minister in the BJP government and daughter-in-law of former Punjab chief minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal, Harsimrat was supposed to bring special packages for the state.”
“Instead, she has failed to bring the right of Punjab, by giving tax exemption to the industries in hilly states. Harsimrat should immediately step down from her post in the Modi government, taking moral responsibility of the partiality against Punjab,” he said.
He said that central government has announced tax exemption for the Himalayan states. But they have ignored Punjab, which is debt-ridden and needs special packages to revive its industries.
“The Vajpayee government, in 1999, had first initiated complete tax benefits of central excise duty, sales tax, income tax, etc to the hill states,” he said.
“This policy was further pursued by the Manmohan Singh government for another 10 years. Now, the Modi government has decided to extend the tax benefits to the hill states for 10 years,” he added.
Khaira said that as per records, 4,284 industrial units will benefit from the new tax waiver decision by the BJP government and a sum of ₹27,413 crore will be refunded as subsidy, to these units.
He said, “Even Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had recently revealed that almost 30,000 industrial units of the state have either shut down or moved to the hill states to avail these tax benefits.”
He also targeted Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and asked him to break his alliance with the BJP for failing to get an exemption on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the Golden Temple’s langer.
Attacking the Congress government, he said, “This discriminatory decision is a huge setback for the Captain Amarinder Singh, who has been repeatedly going to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a begging bowl. He should lodge a protest on the behalf of the state.”
The intention seems sincere, but this historical drama about the 1947 partitioning of the British Indian Empire is weighted down by a verbose script, leaden direction and a tacked-on fictional romance straight out of a Z-grade Bollywood melodrama.
More inept than inspiring, Viceroy’s House monotonously sets about depicting the political and religious schisms that led to the division of the country into two independent nations.
The primary setting is the palatial titular mansion, which served as the seat of government as well as the residence of Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville).
The last viceroy to serve in India, he has been dispatched to New Delhi to oversee the transition to self-rule of India and the newly founded state of Pakistan.
Mountbatten has his work cut out for him, amid escalating tensions between the populations and the new leadership — Jawaharlal Nehru (Tanveer Ghani), Mahatma Gandhi (Neeraj Kabi) and Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Denzel Smith).
Curiously, there are no allusions to the alleged affair between Lady Mountbatten (Gillian Anderson, impressive) and Nehru.
Unable to rise to the challenge of conveying the complexities of this time in our history, director Gurinder Chadha ends up trivialising the struggles of the people on both sides of the new divide.