In an apparent attempt to cash in on the rebellious mood of once a political rival — Parminder Singh Dhindsa, the Congress party is virtually after him to come out with the facts on the issue of Rs 31,000 crore food loan account repayment. Days after appealing Dhindsa to “make disclosures”, Jakhar on Sunday shot off a communiqué to Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker to “allow him enough time” to speak on the issue during the ongoing budget session.
Dhindsa, who was expelled by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), led by Badals, after he raised his voice against the party and is now part of SAD (Democratic), was the Finance Minister in the previous SAD-BJP regime. He is also a sitting MLA from Lehragaga.
Wanting the political force to get together for fighting two common enemies, Jakhar has been virtually coaxing Dhindsa to make the revelations regarding Rs 31,000 crore food account loan repayment, signed by the previous SAD-BJP government.
“A document has come to light which reveals how Punjab’s economy has been deliberately destroyed. This Centre’s report on Rs 31,000 crore Food Loan Account exposes how instead of accepting a proposal of Union Finance Ministry in year 2017, which pegged the Punjab’s liabilities at Rs 13,000 crore, the then Akali-BJP Government connived to burden our State with a liability of Rs 31,000 crore,” said Jakhar in his letter to the Speaker Rana KP Singh.
Raising the issue of critical importance and of “grave financial implications” for Punjab and its people, Jakhar said that it was not only bizarre and baffling, “but is clearly an act of criminal betrayal of the State”.
Jakhar, through his letter, requested the Speaker to “initiate a discussion” on the issue and “allow enough time to the then Finance Minister and sitting MLA Parminder Singh Dhindsa during the ongoing Vidhan Sabha Session to explain the series of deliberations detailing the nefarious role played by both SAD and BJP leaderships to mortgage Punjab’s financial independence”. He stated that the people of Punjab deserve fulsome disclosure on the issue to understand and expose those who played with their future.
Notably, Jakhar, in the past week, addressed the media and challenged Dhindsa “to come clean and explain his political compulsions which led him to mortgage the state’s interests by agreeing to Rs 31,000 crore food account repayment”.
Jakhar had asked Dhindsa to “at least now seek forgiveness from the people of Punjab by being honest and truthful”.
“I ask Dhindsa, will you reply about backstabbing Punjab since you had earlier left the SAD as they backstabbed the Sikh community,” Jakhar had questioned the former Finance Minister.
Armed with a copy of the Central Government’s report on the issue, Jakhar had stated that it clearly mentioned the Centre’s plan that Punjab would accept the responsibility for Rs 13,000 crores. He had also urged the BJP’s national leadership to make all documents public to let the truth come out to confirm if BJP’s senior leadership arm-twisted the Central Government to put this additional burden on Punjab as they knew people had voted them out in the 2017 state assembly elections.
Jakhar had stated that he would write to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to ascertain all facts on the issue in the public domain.