As the D-day draws closer, political leaders are busy running down other claimants

Ahead of the Punjab Assembly election, the leaders of various parties have let loose a volley of explanations, allegations and proclamations. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was removed from his post because he did not agree to provide free electricity to the poor. Referring to the drugs menace in the State, Rahul said, “I kept saying drugs are a threat to the country. I am saying this again, Punjab is not a State where experiments should be done. Development and growth will be meaningless in Punjab if drugs continue to destroy lives of youth here.” Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and Punjab Lok Congress president Amarinder Singh has said he was not against the people of Pakistan but their rulers and its Army who were “fomenting trouble” and killing Indian soldiers on the borders. He said that he harboured on ill-will against Pakistan’s people and was “all for good relationship between the two countries”, but the Pakistani Prime Minister and his Army were too hostile towards India. This was aimed indirectly at the Congress and its PCC chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Taking a dig at the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, the former CM said that Bhagwant Mann was a “good actor who amuses people and makes them laugh” but running a Government is serious business unlike amusing people. Meanwhile, former PM Manmohan Singh, in a rare and stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that though the BJP had been in power for more than seven years, it still blamed first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for every problem. “The post of Prime Minister has a certain dignity,” remarked Singh just days before the Punjab election. Singh, 89, said the Congress had never divided the country for political gains or hidden the truth. The BJP, on the other hand, believed in "fake nationalist" based on the British policy of divide and rule. The two-time Prime Minister also accused the Government of a failed foreign policy and of trying to suppress Chinese incursions at the LAC. "They (the BJP-led Government) have no understanding of economic policy. This Government has also failed on foreign policy. China is sitting at our border and efforts are being made to suppress it (incursions),” the former PM said. Polling in Punjab will take place in a single phase on February 20.