It seems like Congress and its most powerful Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s house is on fire as some of the Congress MLAs have taken a rebellious route to show their dissent.
A sitting Congress MLA from Jalandhar (Cantt.) and former captain of Indian hockey team Pargat Singh’s letter to Amarinder Singh written a month back has surfaced now. In the letter, Pargat is seen questioning the CM on alleged cover-up of corruption cases. The letter becoming public comes at a very crucial stage as the eight-day budget session of the state assembly begins today. The Olympian met the CM on Wednesday and told him that the people of Punjab had a “poor perception of the state government”, which is undeniable, to say the least.
The Congress party had promised to address issues of corruption and drug menace in the state but failed to fulfill promises even after three years of its tenure. The letter noted that major cases of corruption were collapsing and raised concern over sand and liquor mafia. “Why major cases of corruption are either collapsing or are being allowed to fail in place of taking it to a logical conclusion,” Pargat had further questioned in the letter.
Captain’s vanguards/cabinet colleagues had also shown their disenchantment on Tuesday over the working of his government’s functionaries. During the pre-budget session cabinet meeting on Tuesday, some ministers objected to the working of Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh and Advocate General Atul Nanda. Both officers were cherry hand-picked by Amarinder himself when he took over the reins of Punjab again. Senior minister Sukhjinder Randhawa went on to say that the civil servants “did not care” for elected legislators, and added that the AG’s office too had failed to defend the state government in prominent cases. Several cabinet ministers seconded Randhawa’s criticism of Nanda.
Congress heavyweight leaders like Navjot Singh Sidhu, Surjeet Dhiman, Randeep Singh and Raja Warring have also spoken against the functioning of their government. Co-incidentally Pargat is considered a close friend of Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu was extremely vocal against the government’s functioning and especially Captain while he was a cabinet-level minister although he had to pay the price for it after he was ejected from the cabinet by the two time CM.
Last month, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu had locked horns with Amarinder and Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, asking them to start working towards fulfilling the party’s pre-poll promises. He challenged Badal to prove he is an effective minister, and that his parent party Akali Dal’s accusation that he is a “failed minister” is baseless.
In recent times, it looks like Congress and its state leaders are constantly embroiled in power tussle and in-fighting. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Kamal Nath and party leader, Jyotiraditya Scindia have launched a series of nasty verbal attacks at each other publicly. Madhya Pradesh Congress unit has been in a state of disarray ever since Scindia threatened to hit the streets if the Congress government in the state does not fulfill its promises
Even in the state of Rajasthan, the curious case of Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot every now and then seems like a fight straight out of soap operas. Pilot had taken a dig at his own government led by Gehlot following the Kota tragedy. Following Congress’ disastrous showing in Delhi Assembly polls, Maharashtra Congress leader, Milind Deora had tweeted about Kejriwal government’s “fiscal prudence” and got called out by Congress leader Ajay Maken.
Brother, I would never undermine Sheila Dikshit’s stellar performance as Delhi CM. That’s your specialty.
But it’s never too late to change!
Instead of advocating an alliance with AAP, if only you had highlighted Sheila ji’s achievements, @INCIndia would’ve been in power today https://t.co/aiZYdizdUL
— Milind Deora | मिलिंद देवरा ☮️ (@milinddeora) February 17, 2020
Congress party has become a headless chicken with the party high-command that includes the mother-son duo of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi nowhere to be seen. The constant bickering amongst party men is doing the oldest party of the country no good as the recent bashing at the Delhi assembly elections prove where Congress could not open its account and had to return to the pavilion on a magnificent Golden Duck. That’s two elections on the trot, Bois have indeed played well!
