Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ridiculed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) desperate efforts to promote 'The Accidental Prime Minister' just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as a political stunt aimed at "demeaning the Congress, which was riding a wave of success as manifest in its recent victories in several state elections."
The Chief Minister, in a statement on Sunday, described the BJP's attempt to use the movie, which seeks to project Dr Manmohan Singh as a weak and docile prime minister, as not only childish but brazenly politically motivated.
"The use of the movie's recently released trailer by the BJP, which was tweeted from the party's official twitter handle and promoted by many of its leaders on social media, to criticise Dr Singh clearly showed their desperation and frustration in the face of their imminent defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections," said Singh
Lambasting the BJP for resorting to cheap politics to strengthen their electoral chances, the Chief Minister asserted that the BJP accepts that it had lost the support of the people, which they could not earn back by indulging in such petty political tactics.
"Even the worst critics of Dr Singh could not find fault with him. BJP is merely using the movie, slated to release next month, as a pawn in a futile attempt to undermine the Congress in view of the upcoming parliamentary elections," he added.
Singh also claimed that unlike the BJP, the Congress party believes in allowing its leaders and members to run their own affairs as they deemed fit.
"As a Congress chief minister, I myself have had the total freedom to function. The party follows a policy of non-interference in these matters. Dr Manmohan Singh was a world-class leader in his own right," he said.
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"The nation will forever remain indebted to the former prime minister for leading it to new heights of global eminence through his far-reaching decisions. If India became a global economic superpower, the credit went to Dr Singh," added Chief Minister Singh.
Further sharpening his attack, the Punjab Chief Minister said: "Having pulled the nation down from its elevated global position for political gains, the BJP-led opposition was now trying desperately to hide its own failures through its canards on various issues, including promotion of blatant falsehoods about one of India's greatest prime ministers.