Ahead of Aam Aadmi Party's National Convener Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Punjab tomorrow, state Congress chief Amarinder Singh today alleged the Delhi Chief Minister failed to keep a majority of promises he made to the electorate and accused him of "befooling" people.
Amarinder was referring to Kejriwal's statement after becoming the Delhi Chief Minister, that it would not be bad if his government fulfilled even "about half the promises", made before the polls, in five years.
"If your intentions are such that you really don't mean to fulfil all the promises, then why make such promises in the first instance and befool the people. This is wilful cheating," the state Congress chief said.
Kejriwal's visit is part of AAP's 'Punjab Dialogue' aimed at studying various issues for preparing the party's manifesto for the 2017 Assembly polls.
Terming 'Punjab Dialogue' as a show of "political theatrics", Amarinder said, "It is quite natural for a party which has no roots but just a few shoots in Punjab to struggle to identify the issues."
"If you really don't know what issues and problems are ailing Punjab you really don't have any right to claim to represent Punjabis," he said, adding "if you think of bringing half-hatched eggs from outside for the local mule ducks to hatch here, you will be badly disappointed."
Amarinder said AAP claims to go to each and every of the 12,581 villages in Punjab to seek opinion of the people and find out the issues which is virtually impractical and impossible.
"Do you really prepare manifestos like that," he asked.
The state Congress chief said, "You really don't need to visit 12,581 villages to know about the problems of people as everybody everywhere knows what is ailing Punjab."
"That is why I have been insisting that Punjab cannot afford any new experiment with the people who have no experience, no competence, no knowledge and not even any roots in Punjab," he added.
Amarinder pointed out that he had never denied welcoming
then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the SYL foundation laying ceremony in 1982, since, as an MP, it was his responsibility to do so.
The mere fact of welcoming the prime minister on account of his parliamentary office, in no way, amounted to supporting the SYL, said Amarinder, pointing out that he had, in fact, brought in the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Treaty to protect the interests of the state.
Notably, Amarinder, the Congress' Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, yesterday met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and tendered his resignation from the House.
He had earlier announced his resignation to protest the "injustice" meted out to the people of Punjab following the November 10 Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water sharing agreement which, he and most other state leaders have been opposing.
The SYL agreement has become a major political issue in the poll-bound state in which Amarinder is leading his party's campaign to capture the power from the SAD-BJP alliance, which has been ruling for a decade.
He had said that he decided to quit the Lok Sabha "as a mark of protest against the deprivation of the people of my state of the much-needed Sutlej river water.
