Slamming BJP for misusing the constitutional posts to weaken the democratically-elected Government in the state, Punjab Cabinet Ministers and senior Congress leaders Vijay Inder Singla and Sunder Sham Arora on Monday reminded that officers were accountable to the elected head and “not the titular one”.
“It is ironic that earlier the Governors in States like West Bengal, Maharashtra and others have tried to throttle democratically-elected governments. Now, Punjab Governor is acting as a puppet in the hands of BJP leadership. Punjabis would never bow before the nefarious designs of the BJP leadership to threaten the Captain government and would teach BJP leadership a lesson,” said the Ministers.
Training their guns against the former Minister and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia for issuing baseless and irresponsible statements, the Ministers said that the BJP leader has never been into Army or NCC not even during their school days due to which he is not aware that a General or Commander calls the officers he was commanding as his own officers.
“If the Chief Minister is calling the officers as his own officers that is primarily because he has Army background…He has every right to say that because the officers of Punjab are directly accountable to him,” said Singla and Arora, reminding the former Minister that Governor was a titular head whereas the real executive powers lie in the hands of democratically elected government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh.
Lambasting Kalia, the Ministers pointed out that the Constitution has fixed the responsibilities of the Governor but the Punjab BJP leaders are hell bent upon defining the office of Governor according to their own whims and fancies on the pattern of West Bengal.