JOIN USPunjab CM Amarinder reciting BJP's script: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal slammed Amarinder Singh on Saturday over the recent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the Punjab chief minister of reciting the BJP's script by allegedly linking the farmers' agitation to national security.
Badal alleged that Singh had surrendered to the BJP after he was summoned to Delhi and told to "choose between facing the Enforcement Directorate and betraying the farmers".
"The choice he made became clear with the first thing he said as soon as he came out of the meeting with Amit Shah, telling the farmers to end their agitation, citing dangers to national security from this peaceful movement," Badal said in a statement.
On Saturday evening, Singh described Badal's latest tirade against him as "utter buffoonery".
The chief minister had said on Thursday he appealed to Shah and the protesting farmers to find an early resolution to the impasse over the contentious farm laws, saying the agitation was affecting Punjab's economy and the nation's security.
Singh had said he never called farmers a threat to national security, adding that his remarks were in context of prolonged stand-off, which "our hostile neighbours, whom the sons of these are very farmers are fighting can exploit".
Badal said everyone in Delhi knew what happened in that meeting. "Instead of telling the Centre to annul the acts, he shocked the farmers by telling them to withdraw agitation and accept defeat and go home," the SAD leader said.
"The brave captain (Singh) merely recited the script given to him by the BJP high command. He sang it like a parrot," Badal said.
The SAD president alleged that Singh's "cowardly surrender" before the ED and Shah might surprise those who took his "hollow bluster and boastfulness" seriously. "Like all bullies, Amarinder is a coward at heart and only needs a bigger bully to expose this cowardice," he said.
In a statement, Singh said no ED cases had ever stopped him for fighting for his people, nor was he like the Badals who are "spineless or a traitor" to the farmers.
"What is new about the ED cases against me or my family that I should suddenly start trembling," he asked.
Singh said he and his family had been fighting the ED and other cases for years, adding that none of the cases had ever stopped him from risking everything for his people.
The Badals, who were totally cornered over their "betrayal" of the farmers, had clearly pressed all the panic buttons in their "desperation to cover up their brazen treachery", the chief minister in a scathing remarks.
"Such is their level of despair that Sukhbir even stooped to undermining the Pakistani threat to the security of Punjab and the nation," Singh said.
"Have you and your SAD become so power-hungry that you have even closed your eyes to the threat posed by the Pakistanis to our security?" the chief minister asked.