 "Arvind Kejriwal")
Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party for its stand the Sutlej-Yamuna Link issue in the Supreme Court, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the party has back stabbed the people of Punjab especially farmers.
"The AAP has miserably failed and stands fully exposed in its very first test of loyalty to the state, especially to our toiling farmers. This is the height of political opportunism and broad daylight falsehood," Badal said.
"I am sad this has come at the expense of the beleaguered farming peasantry of my state," the Chief Minister said, adding, "I do not know how Kejriwal will now face the people of Punjab after this fraud."
The Kejriwal government yesterday supported the stand of Haryana on SYL issue by filling an affidavit in the apex court, said Harcharan Bains, Advisor, National Affairs and Media to Punjab Chief minister.
"Delhi's stand on SYL issue is clearly opposite to what Kejriwal had said in Punjab," he said.
During the hearing, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi supported the stand of Haryana on Presidential Reference over Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal.
Badal said, "The saga of outsiders coming to Punjab to offer fake sympathies and then going back to betray the state within hours and leave its people bleeding continues. Does it behove a Chief Minister to indulge in such an act of deceit against the poor, innocent and trusting farmers?"
People have been talking about Kejriwal's politics of "falsehood" and "opportunism". But he should have spared the brave and patriotic farmers who are already facing such hardships, Badal said.
"How shocking that Kejriwal and his party had been befooling the farmers of Punjab by visiting and offering crocodile tears to the tragedy-stricken families here only to take a brazenly treacherous stand against the same farmers in the Supreme Court," he added.
"In Punjab, Kejriwal said the state alone had an exclusive right over the Ravi-Beas waters and that he and his party were opposed to the construction of the SYL. But no sooner did he leave the sate than he went back on his word and declared that Ravi Beas waters belonged to Haryana, Himachal, J&K and Delhi and that Punjab did not have any exclusive right over these waters," Badal said.
The Chief Minister said he had not reacted to Kejriwal's earlier flip-flop because he thought that the Delhi Chief Minister might have been misquoted by the media. "But what happened in the Supreme Court yesterday shocked me and everyone else, especially the farmers."
"I do not know how will the AAP leadership in Punjab face the Punjabis now, having betrayed the state and its farmers on the most critical issue on the very first opportunity they got to stand by them," Badal added.
