Asserting that a desperate BJP candidate Arun Jaitely was resorting to lies and disinformation campaign his party was notorious for, former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today asked the BJP candidate as how could he blame him (Capt Amarinder) for the decision (to impose property tax in Punjab) taken by his alliance government in Punjab in 2013, seven years after he had completed his term.Referring to the disinformation campaign launched by Jaitley on the issue, Capt Amarinder pointed out, “it defies all logic that Mr Jaitley is trying to blame me for the decision that was taken now, seven years after I completed my term as the Chief Minister”.
The former Chief Minister maintained that even the BJP state president had today admitted in a newspaper interview that they had no option but to impose property tax in the state. “So how do I come into the picture?” he asked, while adding, by trying to repeatedly tell the same lie Jaitley, BJP and the Akalis were trying to pert the public attention as people were angry with their decision to impose this tax.He reiterated that his government had refused the proposal to impose property tax in the state, way back in 2006. He said, the negotiations were held at the bureaucratic level only between the Punjab government officials and the central government officials. “The matter ended then and there only and was resumed by the Akali-BJP government in 2008-09 and finally the Akali-BJP government took the decision to impose property tax in Punjab in 2013”, he said, while adding, “it is strange that how Jaitley, BJP and Akalis can think that anybody was going to believe them when facts were quite opposite to what they were saying”..