Cong never humiliated former CM, says Rawat; Capt calls it ‘blatant lie’

DEHRADUN/ CHANDIGARH: The turmoil in the Congress in Punjab spurred a bitter verbal clash on Friday between party general secretary Harish Rawat and former chief minister Amarinder Singh, a day after the latter announced his decision to end a 52-year-long association with the party.

Rawat, the Punjab incharge and key troubleshooter, said Singh was never humiliated and lost the support of party lawmakers, prompting Singh to hit out at Rawat over his “blatant lies”.

“Captain has been our friend in Congress since 1980. But it is very unfortunate that amid the ongoing situation in the Punjab unit, he is forwarding the theory of his humiliation by the party leadership. He was not humiliated at all... It seems he is under some pressure and doing that on someone’s provocation,” Rawat said at a press conference in Dehradun.

The comments came a day after Singh said he was going to quit the Congress over the humiliation meted out to him by the party. He also met Union home minister Amit Shah and national security adviser Ajit Doval in Delhi, but insisted that the meetings weren’t political.

Singh quit as CM last week after months of tussle between him and rival Navjot Singh Sidhu for control of the party. Sidhu on Tuesday quit as state unit chief, plunging the party into further turmoil, but meetings with new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday appeared to have resolved the deadlock.

Hours after Rawat’s press conference, Singh hit back.

He said that three weeks before stepping down as CM, he had offered his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi but she asked him to continue. The “humiliating manner” in which he was pushed into resigning was a matter of public record, he added.

“The world saw the humiliation and the insult heaped on me, and yet Rawat is making claims to the contrary,” he said. “If this was not humiliation then what was it?” he asked.

Rawat urged Singh to not support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said: “His recent meetings with Shah and other BJP leaders are putting a question mark on his whole life’s political capital and secular credentials which have been the core of his politics all these years. He should not help anti-punjab BJP both directly or indirectly as they are trying to make him their mask in Punjab which is against his stature,” said Rawat.

Rejecting the charge, Singh said even his worst critics could not doubt his integrity in this regard. “But I am no longer surprised that a senior and seasoned Congress leader like Rawat is questioning my secular credentials. It is quite evident that I am no longer trusted and respected in the party that I have served loyally all these years.”

Rawat said the Congress had always given Singh respect. “Thrice he has been the state president of Congress and twice he has been made the CM for a tenure of about nine and a half years. In comparison to that, the other senior leaders in the state didn’t get that much,” he added.