Congress candidate from Amritsar Amarinder Singh today questioned BJP nominee Arun Jaitely's "sheepish silence" over the plight of Punjabi farmers in Gujarat who are being "forcibly evicted" by the state.
Amarinder said Jaitely owes an answer as not only he is contesting from Amritsar, but also he has been a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat for the past 14 years.
"Ideally, as he has been claiming himself to be a Punjabi he should have raised the farmers' issue with the (BJP-led) Gujarat government long back, but unfortunately he has not done anything," Amarinder said.
He expressed doubts whether Jaitely actually has any idea about the Punjabi farmers from Gujarat.
He hoped that Jaitely uses his "good offices with the Gujarat government" to help the Punjabi farmers so that they are not thrown out from the land they have been cultivating for the past fifty years.
Amarinder also took a dig at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for ignoring and overlooking the plight of the Punjabi farmers in Gujarat.
Asked about the Punjabi farmers issue, Jaitley had yesterday said, "He (Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi) has announced that not even one inch of land will be taken and the matter is closed. Lawyers will look into the legal process.
