In Punjab ahead 2017 state assembly polls, the BJP stalwart and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday attacked the state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh over his family’s alleged foreign accounts, while at the same time taking a dig at Aam Aadmi Party saying that it was more interested in creating controversies than running the government.
“Under the Modi government, the country is firmly moving ahead on the path of development,” said Jaitley while claiming that the Congress was constantly “shrinking” across the country.
“This has happened for the first time that the NDA has 340 seats in the lok Sabha and has government in 15 states whereas the Congress has shrunk to 44 seats in the lok Sabha and has its government in just six states,” he said.
Hitting back at Capt Amarinder for accusing him of “using” the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department to target him and his family and “challenging” to prove the allegations, Jaitley said that the facts on the ground spoke otherwise.
“I recall when there was Congress government in Punjab in 2002 led by Capt Amarinder Singh, he used to cook up stories about the Badal family, claiming that they have land in Australia, petrol pump in America, besides levelling other charges,” said Jaitley.
He failed to prove the allegations which he levelled, but we have found accounts of Capt Sahib’s family,” Jaitley said while addressing ‘Vikas Parv’ rally in the Malwa region organised to mark the completion of NDA government’s two years in office.
Jaitley hit out at Capt Amarinder, to whom he had lost the 2014 lok Sabha polls from Amritsar, for claiming that his family has been wrongly framed. “Now Captain is behaving like a cry baby when his family's foreign accounts have been unearthed,” he said.
“The information about (bank) accounts in Switzerland was given to the Indian government by the French authorities. This information was provided by France in 2011 when UPA was in power whereas Modi ji’s government came to power in 2014,” he argued.
“Under the Congress government, when current President (Pranab Mukherjee) was the Finance Minister, the information about Capt’s family account came out,” he said.
In a dig at Amarinder, who has often charged Jaitley with trying to settle “political scores” since his defeat in Amritsar, Jaitley said: “We never advised you to open accounts in foreign countries.”
He accused the previous Congress-led UPA government of going slow in the alleged case involving the former Punjab chief minister’s family.
“When they learnt that this information can hurt the Congress, the previous government slowed down on this issue, even though they wrote one or two letters. But we have procured all the documents pertaining to the incomplete file,” he said.
“And why they took your family’s nameIJ They could have said that the accounts are of Akali Dal or BJP people. They didn’t take our names,” said Jaitley.
Notably, ED is probing foreign accounts of Capt Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur and son Raninder Singh.
‘AAP “lEAST CONCERNED” ABOUT RUNNING GOVT’
Hitting out at AAP, Jaitley said that people in Delhi are “repenting” voting it to power. “Recently, elections took place for 13 municipal seats. They had got 54 per cent votes in Assembly (polls), which dropped to 29 per cent within one year,” he said.
Jaitley accused AAP of indulging in false propaganda and creating controversies in the national capital, while being “least concerned” about running of the government in Delhi, which he said was easier to administer than Punjab.
“It is very difficult to run Punjab because it is a border state. They (SAD-BJP) keep struggling about how to build highways, how to improve infrastructure, how to make people’s lives better,” he said.
On the other hand, running Delhi city, where central government pumps in a lot of money for development works, is very easy, he claimed.
“If Delhi government does just five-seven per cent of its job, the administration will run smoothly. But what is their (AAP’s) agendaIJ It is not to run government, they want to create controversy in one way or the other,” Jaitley alleged.
With Punjab going to polls early next year, Jaitley said the state has to be “saved” from the type of politics practised by the AAP.
Training guns at both Congress and AAP, the Union Finance Minister said that it is crucial to save Punjab from falling prey to the hands of these two political outfits.
lAUDS BADAl GOVT
Arun Jaitley also lauded the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government saying that this has changed the economic face of Punjab.
“Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal has given the details of development to me. I am extremely impressed and would like to congratulate Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Badal and all their ministers for the commendable work they have done to develop Punjab. They have improved the economy of Punjab,” Jaitley said.
“If you have to develop a state or a province, the first thing which one has to do is to connect it through the development of the nation. One has to connect state to the Centre. And this work has been done by the Punjab Government,” he added.