Farmers Movement Archive

CM says documents shared by AAP nail its lies on farm laws

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said on Sunday ‘doctored video’ and other evidences shared by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to support their ‘baseless allegations’ against him had exposed the extent of their desperation and the levels of deceit to which they had stooped in the pursuit of their politically motivated agenda. Taking a dig at AAP over the RTI response copy shared by their spokesperson Raghav Chadha, the chief minister said the documents, in fact, proved that the farm laws were introduced and implemented by the Centre without the high-powered committee’s report even being placed before the governing council of the Niti Aayog. “I am surprised that the AAP spokesperson did not even read the documents he himself showed to the media as purported proof of his allegations,” said Amarinder. The chief minister further added that by sharing a selectively edited video of his (Amarinder’s) statements and a list of final committee members, the AAP spokesperson had made yet another desperate attempt to sell his party’s pack of lies to the people of Punjab. He said these actions showed that Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP had hit rock bottom in its desperation to promote its political agenda in Punjab, where they had been rejected by voters in 2017 assembly polls and in every election thereafter. The fact that they needed to resort to such cheap tactics to find a footing in Punjab goes to show that they have no concrete agenda for the state, he added. The chief minister questioned Chadha on what he was seeking to prove by sharing a copy of the final list of the high-powered committee members dated August 7, 2019, when the original committee (minus Punjab) was actually set up on June 15, 2019. Amarinder pointed out that these dates were clearly mentioned in the documents shared by Chadha himself. “Don’t you understand the difference between Punjab not originally being included in the committee and being named a member after I personally wrote to the Centre on the issue? How does flaunting the final list, in which Punjab was included after my intervention prove me wrong?,” asked Amarinder. The chief minister also said he had never once claimed that Punjab was not in the re-constituted committee. “Had AAP bothered to share the complete videos of my statements, the truth of what I have been saying would have been endorsed, which is obviously why they have carefully doctored my recorded statements,” said Amarinder. He added that when the first meeting of the committee was held, Punjab was not part of it. After Punjab’s inclusion at Amarinder’s behest, one meeting had discussed financial issues with finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal in attendance, while the last had only agriculture secretary as the invited participant, said the chief minister. Amarinder also said even the agenda of the committee, which AAP was repeatedly referring to in a bid to support their ‘lies’, never mentioned any farm laws or new legislations. He further added that the finance minister had already released the minutes of the committee meeting attended by him and the Punjab government’s note to the Centre.

The Times of India

2021-01-25

Chandigarh