AAP has always recognised my vision, work for Punjab: Navjot Singh Sidhu
- July 14, 2021
- Updated: 10:46 am
DW BUREAU / chandigarh
Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday targeted the AAP saying that the party which is now criticising him has praised him in the past. Sidhu's remarks came a day after Aam Aadmi Party's Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann took a dig at him and asked him to tweet about the "funds" allegedly accepted by the ruling Congress from private power companies in the state. The cricketer-turned-politician also shared on Twitter old videos of senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh praising him for raising his voice on several issues including the drug mafia and corruption during the previous SAD-BJP regime and Mann himself calling him a "damn honest" person. Sidhu's tweets come amid attempts by the Congress high command to resolve infighting in the party's Punjab unit and speculation that he may be appointed as the state unit president.
"Our opposition AAP has always recognised my vision & work for Punjab. Be it Before 2017- Beadbi, Drugs, Farmers Issues, Corruption & Power Crisis faced by People of Punjab raised by me or today as I present "Punjab Model" It is clear they know - who is really fighting for Punjab," Sidhu said in a series of tweets. He said, "If the Opposition dares to question me, yet they can't escape my Pro-People Agenda ... This means they have resigned to their fate!!" "Our Opposition singing about me and other loyal Congressmen:- tum agar AAP mein aaoge to koi baat nahin?tum agar Congress mein rahoge to mushkil hogi (if you join the AAP, then there is no issue... if you stay in the Congress, then there will be a problem)," he added. On Monday, AAP leader Mann had alleged that the Punjab government was not scrapping the power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government as the ruling Congress had accepted "funds" from the three private companies that have set up thermal plants in the state.He asked Sidhu to tweet on this issue. "@sherryontopp Saab, If not anything else, we hope you could bother to at least tweet on the issue as you are used to," he said in a tweet.
Sidhu, who has been raising power supply-related issues through social media, had demanded that a white paper on PPAs signed during the SAD-BJP regime be released to make the Badals "accountable" to the people for these "corrupt agreements". A few days ago, Sidhu had attacked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government over its petition in the Supreme Court seeking the closure of 10 coal-fired power plants in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The petition was later withdrawn.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Daljit Singh Bhola Grewal joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) along with his supporters here on Tuesday. AAP's Punjab unit chief, Bhagwant Mann, state affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha and MLA Baljinder Kaur formally inducted him into the party, a statement said. Speaking on the occasion, Mann said people from all walks of life in Punjab were joining the AAP as they were impressed by the pro-people policies of the party and the work of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government. He said Grewal is a well-known personality in Ludhiana district. He has been a councilor of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation for a long time, Mann added. Chadha said the people of Punjab have made up their minds to change the government in the state. Punjab assembly polls are due early next year.
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh not to try to brazenly lie his way out after being caught accepting funds from private thermal plants whom the Congress party had first facilitated and then threatened before they coughed up "donations." The SAD said the Congress party not only made a policy under UPA - 2 government of Dr Manmohan Singh which facilitated the establishment of the thermal plants but also unleashed its Punjab unit against them by threatening to scrap the agreements if the Congress government assumed power in Punjab in 2012. Asking the chief minister not to resort to bald lies which did not hold any water, SAD Spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said "you are directly complicit in this sordid affair which smacks of blackmail. You as well as PCC President Sunil Jakhar publically threatened the private thermal power companies that you would scrap the PPAs they had signed with the then SAD government.
(editor@dailyworld.in)