Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday cornered Narendra Modi over the demonetisation and corruption issues, and demanded the prime minister’s response to the serious allegations made against him by Congress national vice president Rahul Gandhi.Modi has been making all kinds of allegations against the Congress but now it is his turn to be in dock, said Captain Amarinder, asserting that the nation had the right to know the truth on the charges against him and his government.Captain Amarinder’s statement, to a section of the mediapersons here, came on the heels of shocking disclosures by Rahul Gandhi indicating that Sahara officials had paid crores of rupees to Modi as bribe before he became the prime minister.The Punjab Congress president said instead of running away, Modi should come clean on these charges, as also on the truth behind the ill-conceived demonetisation policy that had plunged the nation into a deep financial crisis while leaving millions of Indians facing unprecedented woes.Captain Amarinder rejected the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls result as a referendum on demonetisation and a precursor to the Assembly polls, saying the issues in the union territory, which was controlled by the central government, could not be compared with the issues facing the Punjab electorate, who were totally fed up of the Badals after their decade of misrule.
People across Punjab had been suffering immensely due to the cash crunch triggered by demonetisation, with farmers reeling under shortage of money and industries laying off labourers and even closing down in some cases due to their inability to meet their operational and other expenses, said Captain Amarinder, pointing out that industries across Ludhiana and Amritsar, the key hubs of Punjab, were shutting down en masse in the wake of demonetisation.Citing reports from Congress workers on the ground that there had been tampering of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the Chandigarh MC polls, Captain Amarinder pointed out that being a Union Territory, Chandigarh was controlled by the Government of India, whose writ rules large there.Pointing out that the Congress had raised apprehensions of EVM rigging with the Election Commission several months ago, he expressed the hope that the EC would heed the Congress request for use of EVMs from outside Punjab in the upcoming Assembly elections.Since the EVMs available in the state are in the custody of the local administrative officials, whom the ruling SAD led by the Badals can easily coerce, using these machines was likely to result in manipulation of the results in the Assembly polls, Captain Amarinder warned.Referring to the spate of welfare schemes and sops announced in recent days by the Badal government, Captain Amarinder urged the Election Commission, once again, to impose the code of conduct in the state without further delay.In response to a question, the Punjab Congress president reiterated that he was in favour of single-phase polling in the state to prevent misuse of official authority and coercion of voters by the goondas patronized by the Badals.