After a short period of lull, the storm is back in the Congress party unit in Punjab. The two arch rivals — former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and State unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa — are back with their verbal attacks against each other. Bajwa on Monday minced no words to accuse his bête noire Capt Amarinder of ‘grave indiscipline’ by ‘criticizing’ party’s national vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
He has also asked the senior Congress leader to apologise in public for it, in any capacity.
“Capt Amarinder Singh has committed a grave indiscipline by attacking party vice-president Rahul Gandhi twice. He must unconditionally and publicly apologise to Gandhi for this violation of discipline,” he said.
“linked to his (Amarinder’s) violation of party discipline is the speculation about his floating a new party,” Bajwa said adding that Capt Amarinder must categorically rebut such speculation.
Bajwa said that as a loyal and disciplined soldier of the party, every leader and activist is duty-bound to unquestioningly abide every decision of the high command as this is basic to the functioning of the party and Capt Amarinder was no exception.
Also ruling out any support to Capt Amarinder in any capacity, Bajwa clarified that his statement regarding the former Chief Minister, that he made at a Press conference during his tour to meet farmers in the cotton belt in Fazilka area, was “totally distorted and presented out of its context”. Ridiculing Bajwa over his ‘frequent somersaulting’ on different issues and party affairs, the Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder asked him to better keep his unsolicited opinions to himself when he knows that nobody takes him seriously.
“Who cares about BajwaIJ” he remarked. Referring to Bajwa’s frequent “simian somersaults” and two contrary statements in a span of two days, Capt Amarinder said: “It is so characteristic of him that he so frequently resorts to simian somersaults thus vindicating the popular belief that he is mentally and intellectually not equipped to hold the position he is desperately trying to cling to.”
Capt Amarinder, reacting to Bajwa’s statement that he will not support him as PPCC president after saying that he will support his presidency only a day before, said: “Bajwa always tries to get wiser in the hindsight by undoing the next day what he has done the previous day.”