A fresh war of words ensued between Sukhbir Singh Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president accusing the Punjab Chief Minister of “reciting the BJP’s script” thanks to fear of Enforcement Directorate and therefore the latter hitting back saying that he wasn’t “spineless or a traitor to farmers just like the Badals”.
Suukhbir fired the primary salvo saying Amarinder has “surrendered” to the BJP after he was summoned to Delhi to be told to “choose between facing the ED and betraying the farmers”.
On Thursday, Amarinder Singh had made an appeal to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and therefore the protesting farmers to seek out an early resolution to the impasse over the new farm laws, saying the agitation was affecting Punjab’s economy and therefore the nation’s security.
“The choice he (Amarinder) made became clear with the primary thing he said as soon as he came out of the meeting with Amit Shah, telling farmers to finish their agitation, citing dangers to national security from this peaceful movement,” Sukhbir said.
Sukhbir alleged that Amarinder’s “cowardly surrender” before the ED and Amit Shah may surprise those that take his “hollow bluster and boastfulness” seriously. “Everyone in Delhi knows what happened therein strange meeting held behind the farmers’ back. rather than telling the Centre to annul the Acts, he shocked the farmers by telling them to withdraw agitation and accept defeat and head home ,” Sukhbir claimed.
“The brave captain merely recited the script given to him by the BJP supreme headquarters . He sang it sort of a parrot,” the SAD chief added.
Terming Sukhbir’s comments as “utter buffoonery”, Amarinder said “no ED cases had ever stopped him from fighting for his people, nor was he spineless or a traitor to farmers just like the Badals”.
“The Badals, who were totally cornered over their betrayal of the farmers, had clearly pressed all the panic buttons in their desperation to hide up their brazen treachery,”Amarinder said during a statement.
Such is their level of despair that Sukhbir even stooped to undermining the Pakistani threat to the safety of Punjab and therefore the nation, Amarinder said, terming it a betrayal to the safety forces battling the enemy at the borders a day at the value of their lives.
“Have you and your SAD become so power-hungry that you simply have even closed your eyes to the threat posed by the Pakistanis to our security? Are you saying that each one those arms, ammunition and drones our brave security forces have captured along the Punjab border are not any danger?” he asked while adding that “it seemed that Sukhbir had totally lost it”.
As for the ED cases, the CM asked Sukhbir, “What is new about the ED cases against me or my family that I should suddenly start trembling?” He and his family had been fighting ED and other cases for years, he acknowledged , adding that not one among these cases had ever stopped him from risking everything for his people.
In response to the SAD president’s allegation that he (the Chief Minister) had “surrendered to BJP’s blackmail”, Amarinder said, “Do you even know the meaning of blackmail? it had been you and your party who had been ‘pandering’ to BJP’s interests and giving in to their pressure as their allies of these years”.
The CM said “had I succumbed to so-called blackmail, i might not have brought the amendment Bills within the state Assembly but, like Delhi CM, would have notified the Central laws long ago”. So stop lying and misleading the people, he said, adding that no-one was getting to be taken in by these falsehoods of the Akalis, whose double-speak on the farm laws and therefore the farmers’ issues had been exposed quite once. “Whose blackmail did you surrender to once you did a U-turn over the state amendment Bills after backing them in Vidhan Sabha?” he asked Sukhbir.
Amarinder asked the Akali leader what “warning” he was pertaining to . “Can you cite even one instance once I asked the farmers to withdraw their agitation?” he asked, adding that it had been evident that like Harsimrat Badal, Sukhbir had no understanding of plain and straightforward English. “Don’t you recognize the difference between urging farmers and Centre to seek out an early solution and issuing a warning?” he asked Sukhbir.
The theatrics and lies of the whole Badal clan aren’t getting to help them salvage their reputation within the eyes of the farmers, or the remainder of Punjab, the CM said, remarking that shortly ago, all of them were openly and publicly backing the Central laws and are now claiming to be the messiahs of the farmers. The people still haven’t forgotten Prakash Singh Badal’s videos supporting the farm laws of the Central government, nor have they forgiven Harsimrat for stamping her approval on the ordinances as a member of the Union Cabine