Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday listed down the failures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s 10 years of misgovernance, saying the people of the state wanted an explanation and did not want to hear about Congress achievements, which they were already well aware of.Asking Badal to come out of the luxury of their Sukhvilas and explain his government's total failure in addressing the needs of the people, he said they needed to know why they had been plunged to such depths of despair by his government.Reacting to Badal’s challenges to him to list down just one of his government’s achievements, Captain Amarinder reminded the chief minister that he had disclosed not one but initially 51, and then 101 of his government’s achievements in the state assembly, a long time ago and it was now time for the Badal government to talk about their failures.Captain Amarinder also dismissed the fraudulent propaganda of Badal that there was no law and order problem in the state, and the Congress was merely trying to put undue pressure on the Punjab Police.The law and order situation in the state is the worst ever in the history of Punjab, said the Punjab Congress president, adding that the situation had never been as grave as this, with crime at an unprecedented high.
Badal was obviously clueless about the state of affairs under his government and was too busy indulging in Sangat Darshans to be concerned about the situation in the state, said Captain Amarinder, adding that incidents of crime had spiked to unprecedented levels in recent months, with mafia ruling the roost and crores of rupees of public money finding its way into the personal pockets of the Badals through a series of scams.Reacting to Badal’s challenges to him to list down just one of his government’s achievements, Captain Amarinder reminded the chief minister that he had disclosed not one but 101 of his government’s achievements in the state assembly a long time ago and it was now time for the Badal government to talk about their failures.The Punjab Congress president charged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal with suffering from selective amnesia with regard to the Congress government’s achievements, which the people of the state well knew of but he seemed to conveniently keep forgetting. Captain Amarinder further said the people of Punjab knew that he always kept his promises to them, unlike the Badals, who had always left them in the lurch in their hour of crisis.Captain Amarinder, however, said he was happy to note that Badal had realized that the Congress 9-point agenda was imaginative and added that the Akali government had pushed the state into such a mess that only out-of-the-box thinking and imaginative solutions could bring it back on the path to revival.
Referring to Badal’s statement in which he had candidly referred to the Congress agenda as imaginative, Captain Amarinder said had the chief minister also been concerned about the welfare of the people and come out with an imaginative action plan, things would have been different today for Punjabis.The Badals had neither the imagination nor the intent to alleviate the sufferings of the people of Punjab, who had been brought to the brink of ruin by the SAD government’s anti-people policies, said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president in a statement here.Offering to help Badal, who seemed to have a myopic memory, recall his government’s failures, Captain Amarinder said he would be happy to list them down, just as he had listed his own achievements earlier.The PPCC chief cited data and documentary evidence to point out that the Badal government’s failures were all-encompassing and covered every aspect of Punjab’s governance. Atrocities against Dalits had witnessed a 15-fold since Badal took over as chief minister, while SC government employees had gone down by 10% in this period, Captain Amarinder revealed, adding that there had been total collapse of the state’s agrarian and industrial sectors.In the same period, investment growth had come down from 91% to -5%, Captain Amarinder pointed out, adding that Punjab had the dubious distinction of recording the second highest number of farmer suicides in India in 2015. From economic to manufacturing growth, from health to education, every sector in Punjab was in the doldrums, said Captain Amarinder, adding that the state was today in the grip of a drugs menace with Rs. 7500 crore worth of drugs being consumed annually, mainly by the youth.The law and order situation in Punjab was at an abysmal low, while crimes against women were at a shocking high, the Punjab Congress president said, adding that the list of Badal’s failures was interminably long and could not be penned down on a few sheets of paper.“It is about these failures of your government that the people are interested in knowing,” said Captain Amarinder, asking Badal to refrain from wasting public time and money on making repetitive and baseless allegations that had no substance and could not help the SAD government brush its own failures under the carpet.