Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday lashed out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for once again exposing its “true colors” on the issue of the farm laws and the farmers’ agitation by walking out of the House before the resolution seeking repeal of the legislation was put to vote.
In a statement issued here, the Chief Minister said that the party had never been truly concerned about protecting the farmers or their interests, and its leadership again proved itself to be an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with whom AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was colluding against the agitating farmers.
Amarinder Singh, who had earlier in the House shown to the members a copy of the Delhi gazette notification implementing one of the three farm laws, reiterated that the party was cheating the farmers with its false propaganda in their support.
The fact is that they have repeatedly backstabbed the farmers, and have done so ago, he said, recalling AAP’s earlier U-turns also on the issue in Punjab.
In the House earlier, AAP members had rushed into the well before staging a walk-out, alleging that the Chief Minister was a member of the high-powered committee set up by the Centre on agricultural reforms and hence party to the decision on the farm laws.
Even though the Chief Minister himself made it clear that he was not present at any meeting of the committee, where his minister Manpreet Badal had attended one meeting while another was participated by an officer and Manpreet also categorically stated that the state government was not aware of the Ordinances, the AAP chose to create a ruckus in the House on the issue.
It was evident, Amarinder Singh said later, that the AAP was not interested in the truth but wanted to continue with its malicious agenda of spreading misinformation on the issue.
As pointed out by Manpreet Singh in the House, the Chief Minister said that all the minutes of the committee meetings were available as the state government had placed them in the House.
Further, at both the meetings held after Punjab was included in the committee following his letter to the Centre, his government had categorically cautioned the Centre against tinkering with the minimum support price (MSP) in any way, he added.
