A day after Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made it clear that he would soon be parting ways with the Congress after being “humiliated”, another round of public mudslinging started on Friday — this time between the party’s Punjab general secretary in-charge Harish Rawat and the Captain.
Rawat issued a detailed statement of how Amarinder was “never humiliated” and was always “kept in high esteem”, how he was given free hand but failed to deliver, how he lost the support of legislators because of his stubbornness.
Quick to respond, Amarinder said that Rawat’s statement proves that the party finds itself in a “pathetic situation” in Punjab.
Claiming that Amarinder’s announcement to quit the Congress seemed to be taken “under pressure”, Rawat asked the senior Congress leader to “rethink” and urged him not to help the BJP in any way.
Reacting, Amarinder said that the only pressure that he has been under is the pressure of his loyalty to the party for which he has put up with the “humiliation” all these days.
Rawat said: “Congress has always kept Amarinder and his family in high esteem. Even after suffering a crushing defeat from Patiala constituency in 1998, he was inducted into the Congress party and immediately appointed by Sonia Gandhi as the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on three occasions from 1999 to 2002, 2010 to 2013, and 2015 to 2017.
Twice, the Congress party made him the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and 2017 to 2021. As the Chief Minister, he was given a complete free hand.”
Rawat said that despite continuous reminders from his colleagues and the leadership, “unfortunately, Amarinder failed to keep his promises on important issues like Bargari, drugs, electricity, etc.
“There was a general perception throughout the State that Captain and the Badals are helping each other, and they have a secret understanding. I was always politely suggesting him to initiate action on our election promises. At least five times I discussed these issues with Captain sahib, but with no result,” Rawat said.
“The whole Bargari issue was mishandled by trusted lieutenants of Amarinder. In Cabinet meetings, there were heated discussions on this issue and later, many prominent Ministers came to Delhi with a complaint that now with Amarinder at the helm of affairs, Congress cannot win the elections,” he said.
To find a solution, the Congress high command formed a three-member panel under the chairmanship of veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge. This panel heard more than 150 prominent leaders, including MLAs, MPs, ex-MLAs, ex-MPs, PCC president, ex-PCC presidents, Youth Congress, NSUI, Mahila Congress and Sewa Dal leaders, he said.
“After prolonged discussions, the former Chief Minister agreed to implement decisions on 18 points (which included the Bargari desecration issue, drugs menace, power tariff) suggested by the panel to the Congress president. In this meeting, an overwhelming majority of MLAs clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with the Amarinder administration’s style of functioning and quite a good number suggested his immediate replacement,” Rawat added.
Rawat went on to say that Amarinder, however, did not implement even one out of the 18 points. “The panel then summoned him again and a time-bound course of implementation was discussed and mutually agreed upon. But after returning to Chandigarh, Amarinder forgot his promises to the panel and to the Congress president once again,” he added.
“Born out of his stubbornness, he was of the belief that he does not need any advice from anyone, including his own MLAs and Ministers and party leadership. However, again I went to meet Amarinder at his house and had a lengthy discussion with him along with his officials. We came down to five points which he promised to implement within the next 10 days. After this, 20 days passed, and we didn’t hear anything from him. The Congress MLAs and Ministers were getting restless,” Rawat pointed out.
The senior Congress leader said that the rebellion happened after in a written letter to the party leadership, 43 MLAs said despite repeated efforts they could not get anything done by Amarinder. “After they demanded a Congress Legislative Party meeting, I tried to contact Amarinder Singh ji thrice, but I could not get him on telephone. Then through one of his well-wishers, I sent him a message that there is a demand for a CLP meeting, and we have no option but to call the CLP meeting. Despite getting the message, Amarinder didn’t bother to telephone me,” he said.
“Then I suggested to the party high command that if we delay the matter, many MLAs may form a separate group or may create some more problems for the party. It was then decided to call a CLP meeting. I then officially informed Amarinder that the party has called a CLP meeting and requested him to attend the meeting,” Rawat explained.
In response, the former Chief Minister instead called a separate meeting at his residence on the day of the CLP meeting. Before that, the Congress chief also spoke to Singh about the complaints signed by 43 MLAs and the CLP meeting. Amarinder offered to resign and there was no other option than to choose a new CLP leader, Rawat said.
Before choosing a new CLP leader, the 78 MLAs present (out of the total 80) passed a unanimous resolution praising Amarinder and thanking him for his leadership of the state Congress as well as the CLP. How does this sequence of events suggest that anybody intended to humiliate him, asked Rawat.