AMARINDER WROTE TO SONIA GANDHI EXPRESSING HIS PERSONAL ANGUISH
CHANDIGARH: Hours before he resigned as Punjab chief minister, Amarinder Singh wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, expressing “personal anguish” at the decision. “Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hardearned peace and development in the state, and that the efforts I have been focusing during the last few years, would continue unabated, ensuring justice to one and all,” he wrote.
CHANDIGARH: Hours before he resigned as the Punjab chief minister, Amarinder Singh wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, expressing “personal anguish” at the decision and hoped that it doesn’t damage the “peace and development in the state”.
“Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hard-earned peace and development in the state, and that the efforts I have been focusing during the last few years, would continue unabated, ensuring justice to one and all,” Singh wrote in the letter on Saturday as he informed the party president of his decision to step down, barely five months before the state assembly elections are due early next year.
Singh's decision came after months of infighting and dissidence, which escalated after the promotion of Congress leader Navjot Sidhu to the position of the state unit chief.
Without mincing words, Singh said that he felt “humiliated” by the recent developments in the state party unit and sensed a lack of trust in him on part of the Congress high command.
In the letter, Singh said: “The people of Punjab are looking up to the Indian National Congress for its mature and effective pubfew lic policies, which not only reflect upon good politics, but also address the concerns of the common man that are specific to this border state.”
Listing out the achievements of his government over the last years, notwithstanding “numerous challenges”, he said: “My government fulfilled 89.2% of the promises, while work is in progress on the remaining commitments.”
Tensions between Singh and Sidhu, simmering since 2019, mounted in May after the Punjab government suffered a legal setback in a 2015 case of police firing on a crowd protesting the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.
Sidhu and some leaders publicly accused Singh of corruption, prompting the Congress to set up the three-member panel. The panel met around 150 functionaries – including Singh twice -- and submitted its report to Gandhi on June 10. The panel recommended that Singh retain the charge but Sidhu be accommodated in a key role. On July 18, Congress appointed Sidhu as the president of its Punjab unit.
On the issue of the sacrilege cases and the subsequent police action of 2015, for which his government came under criticism not only from the Opposition but some leaders from the party’s state unit questioning him for not doing enough, Singh said the government which he earlier headed was committed to ensuring justice in the matter.
“Criminal proceedings in these cases are currently underway and I am sure that justice will be done in due course,” he added.