Sukhbir, his wife doing petty politicking: CM

CHANDIGARH:Punjab chief minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday, saying that the opposition party chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal were indulging in “petty politicking” on the issue of farmers’ plight.

He said the people of the state, particularly the distressed farmers, had expected the former deputy chief minister and his Union minister wife to pressure the central government to come to the rescue of the farming community.

“But far from doing so, the Badals were simply indulging in petty politicking on such a sensitive issue, which was a matter of life or death for the farmers,” the CM said in a statement here.

He said that instead of asking the BJP-led central government, in which the SAD is a part and Harsimrat a minister, to come out in support of the Punjab government’s programmes to alleviate the sufferings of the farmers, Badal was leaving no opportunity to undermine the state government’s efforts on this count.

The chief minister also dismissed as “ridiculous and baseless” the SAD chief’s reported allegation that he was “trying to pass the buck” on farm loan waiver. He lashed out at the SAD president for “trying to mislead the farmers” with his “brazenly false and unfounded” statement.

He said that had the SAD-BJP government done anything for the state’s farmers during their 10-year rule, the farming community would not be under such acute distress today.