A day after the verbal slugfest between the two contenders for the Amritsar lok Sabha constituency — BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley and Congress senior leader Capt Amarinder Singh, the former on Monday maintained that he would not resort to any personal attacks on his Congress rival during the elections.
“I reacted on Sonia Gandhi hailing not from India but from abroad only after he raked up the issue of my being an outsider. I never wanted to raise personal issues, but those which are public-oriented,” said Jaitley.
On the other hand, former Chief Minister took dig at Jaitley for claiming himself to be a mazboot neta (strong leader). “It is already well established as to who is the majboor (helpless) leader, and who is mazboot (strong),” said he.
“Mazboot netas do not go begging for constituencies to secure their secret ambitions,” said Capt Amarinder, referring to Jaitley’s “secret” prime ministerial ambitions.
Jaitley has stated that he was mazboot as opposed to a majboor Capt Amarinder who was forced to fight elections.
Reacting, Capt Amarinder said, “Whether Jaitley really thought of himself as a
mazboot, considering that it has taken him well over 40 years to find a constituency to contest the general elections.”
launching a scathing attack on his old rival Parkash Singh Badal, Capt Amarinder said, “I understand your ambitions to somehow get elected to the lok Sabha with obvious intentions, but, I am sorry to tell you that you chose the wrong constituency by trusting a man like Parkash Singh Badal… who has simply used you in order to get rid of Navjot Sidhu.”
Capt Amarinder said that there was “nothing wrong in contesting from anywhere in the country, but there is everything wrong indeed by trying to deceive people by claiming roots and relationships with them… Why are you falsely trying to invent your ancestry and roots in Punjab, when there are noneIJ”
TERRORISM WIll BE KEY ISSUE DURING ElECTIONS
Senior BJP leader and party candidate for the Amritsar lok Sabha seat Arun Jaitley on Monday categorically stated that the issue of terrorism will be a key one during the general elections.
Pointing to the fact that Indian security agencies have recently arrested a top Indian Mujahideen terrorist, who was a Pakistani national, and busted a Rajasthan-based module which had planned to attack senior leaders during the elections, Jaitley said that this was a clear indication that terrorism needed to be handled with tough hands.
“I compliment our security agencies who were involved in this process. India’s internal security has been of key concern to all, particularly for us in the BJP. India cannot afford to lower its guard,” said Jaitley, who was accompanied by Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia and Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma during an event to inaugurate BJP-SAD Media Centre. Describing the issue as serious, Jaitley called for it to be addressed on a priority basis. “As security agencies work overtime to track activities of these groups, it is surprising that political establishment of Home Ministry recently announced that they had no information about any threat to political leaders, particularly of the BJP during the election campaign,” he added.
STICKs TO BJP’S STAND ON OPeration BlUESTAR
Despite all the backing the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is providing to sail through his maiden parliamentary elections, the SAD-BJP combine’s candidate from Amritsar Arun Jaitley stuck to the party’s stand against the Operation Bluestar Memorial. Jaitley, while talking to media persons on Monday, was evasive in giving direct reply on memorial which was constructed in memory of terrorists who fought against the Indian Army in 1984.
“Our stand on memorial is the same as that of State BJP and I need not to reiterate it,” said Jaitley. State BJP had opposed the construction of the memorial.
At the same time, Jaitley also maintained that the saffron party was against honouring the militants. “We are not in favour of honouring or eulogising any kind of terror…I don’t want to comment on the issues which are in the Court,” he added.
The SAD-led Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had several times, in the recent past, honoured the kin of militants. Seeing Jaitley not at ease on the issue, the State BJP chief Kamal Sharma and Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia came to his rescue. While Sharma maintained that party was consistent on its stand on memorial and didn’t reiterate the same, Majithia suggested to check BJP’s stand in the Assembly archives.