Writes 7-page resignation letter to Sonia, slams Sidhu
Finally bidding a formal goodbye to the Congress almost a month-and-a-half after he stepped down as Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday announced the name of his new political outfit — Punjab Lok Congress.
In his seven-page resignation letter addressed to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, Capt Amarinder maintained that he was “hurt”, and minced no words to say that several party legislators and even Ministers were involved in illegal sand mining.
At the same time, he lashed out at Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu by calling him “unstable”, while not saying anything against his successor Charanjit Singh Channi.
In fact, in his attack, he did not spare the Gandhi siblings — Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi — for “patronising” Sidhu’s “shenanigans”, and also took on senior leader Harish Rawat by calling him “the most dubious individual”.
“One of my enduring regrets would remain as to why I did not take some of them to task. The thought that it would embarrass the party held me back. However, I do intend to make the list of these people public as this has been provided to me by the Government of Punjab and State Intelligence from time to time,” said Amarinder in his resignation letter.
Notably, Amarinder had resigned as the Chief Minister on September 18 citing humiliation at the hands of the party high command. Channi was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Legislative Party, and became Punjab’s first Dalit Chief Minister.
“I actually felt deeply hurt by your conduct and that of your children who I still deeply love as much as my own children, having known their father, since we were in school together since 1954, which is for 67 years now,” said Amarinder in his letter to Sonia Gandhi.
The former Punjab CM came down heavily on Sidhu for his alleged Pakistani “links”.
Amarinder said: “Despite my profound reservations and over the unanimous advice of almost all the MPs from Punjab, you chose to appoint an acolyte of the Pakistani deep State Sidhu who had publicly hugged Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan, as the president of the Punjab Congress Committee.”
“Khan and Bajwa are the people responsible for sending terrorists across the border to kill Indians. It may be noted that 82 Punjabi soldiers have been martyred in Jammu and Kashmir since my government took over in 2017,” he added.
Capt Amarinder went on to add that Sidhu’s only claim to fame was that he would “abuse me and my Government on a regular basis. I am old enough to be his father but that did not stop him from using the filthiest and most vile language against me both publicly and privately”.
“Unfortunately rather than being reined in (for speaking publicly against him), he was patronised by Rahul and Priyanka, while you chose to turn a blind eye to the shenanigans of this gentleman who was aided and abetted by the General Secretary In-charge Harish Rawat, perhaps the most dubious individual I had the occasion to make acquaintance off,” he added.
Amarinder added, “I had told you at that time also that Sidhu is a person of unstable mind and you will one day regret this decision and it would be too late by then. I am sure you must be regretting it now.”