Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh has put off his plans of visiting the foreign shores in October citing federal elections in Canada, schedule in mid-October, as a reason for the same.
Announcing the postponement of his Canada and United States visit on Tuesday, Capt Amarinder said that the new dates of his programme would be announced later.
The former Chief Minister was scheduled to first visit Canada and then the US in the month of October to woo the NRI brethren ahead 2017 state assembly polls.
He was expected to go on a fortnight-long tour to the US and Canada to woo Punjabi NRIs, especially after their support to the Aam Aadmi Party, during 2014 General Elections, helped them to secure four seats out of 13 in Punjab.
Capt Amarinder had announced to go ahead with his visit abroad even after the US-based NGO — Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) — had filed a criminal complaint against him. The plea was filed to seek his criminal prosecution “for reinstating, promoting and protecting police officials named repeatedly by victims and human rights groups as perpetrators of torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial executions during counter-insurgency operations in the 1990s”.
Dismissing the same, Amritsar MP had described as being filed with the sole purpose of seeking cheap publicity. He had maintained that the complaint was “totally motivated and has been prompted at the behest of certain vested interests and political parties in Punjab which do not want him to visit the US”.
Already, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had sent its ministerial delegation to Canada and North America to woo NRIs, which, at sme places, faced protests.
At the same time, Capt Amarinder’s spokesperson said that the former chief minister would be visiting the United Kingdom in the last week of September to attend a private function. “There will be no public or political programme or any meeting held in the UK during this visit,” he said.