Former Chief Minister and Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh today asked his BJP rival Arun Jaitely to check his own track record in the parliament before questioning others.
Hitting back at Jaitely during a press conference after inaugurating the Amritsar District Congress (rural) office here today, Capt Amarinder pointed out that Jaitely was the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha during the last five years.
"How they (the opposition) under his leadership sabotaged and undermined the democratic functioning the whole country is angry and ashamed of", he said, adding, " I am sure Mr Jaitely must not have forgone his perks during the session".
"How they (the opposition) under his leadership sabotaged and undermined the democratic functioning the whole country is angry and ashamed of", he said, adding, "and I am sure Mr Jaitely must not have forgone his perks during the session".
He asked Jaitely to tell the people of the country in general and Amritsar and Punjab in particular whether he availed of the perks and other benefits as an MP even after the disruption of the house.
"Crores and crores of rupees were wasted as they held parliament to ransom", the former Chief Minister asserted, while advising Jaitley to better practise first what he preaches.
About his own attendance in the assembly, Capt Amarinder replied, he may not have attended all the sittings of the house and even during those he attended he found the behaviour of the treasury benches disgusting.
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He pointed out, first of all there were very few sittings of the Vidhan Sabha during the last seven years and even those held were hijacked by the treasury benches.
Moreover, he added, "the Akalis always conspired to keep me out of the assembly with their unconstitutional and illegal order of my expulsion which was later set aside by the Honourable Supreme Court of India with severe strictures against the Akali government".
To another question that Jaitely had asked why he was targeting the Akalis particularly Bikram Majithia when his (Capt Amarinder's) fight was with him, Capt Amarinder shot back, "a man is known by the company he keeps and Jaitely will be known by the company he is keeping of the goondas like Bikram Majithia and Anil Joshi". Obviously, he added, they can't be spared either.
About Jaitely's charge that he was avoiding national issues, Capt Amarinder remarked, it is just a beginning. The battle, he said, begins from Amritsar. "Actually Jaitely still appears to be the under Rajya Sabha hangover where he is not accountable to anyone so here he does not appear to bother about the people from whom he is seeking votes", he remarked, while adding, he will soon learn that the issues concerning the people who may vote for him are as important as the national issues.
"He is welcome to debate on any issue of his choice which he may feel to be national", Capt Amarinder challenged Jaitely, while adding, "for me the issues concerning the common man of Punjab are as important as those Jaitley thinks are national, even if someone like him (Jaitely) finds them less interesting".