Punjab cabinet minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Adviser to the Chief Minister – Maheshinder Singh Grewal today said former Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira seemed to have forgotten his status while challenging Revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia to a public debate. Stating while the party was ready for a debate on all issues concerning the State, both leaders said such a debate could only happen among equals.“We are ready to field an able former legislator of Sukhpal Khaira’s choice from our party to debate the entire gamut of development undertaken by the SAD-BJP government during this as well as the last government”, they said. They said the party was also ready to share the facts and figures about the manner in which development and even recruitment came to a halt in the State during the Capt Amarinder Singh led Congress government between 2002-2007”, the SAD leaders said.
Both SAD general secretaries said they understood Khaira’s plight and also why he had challenged Mr Bikram Majithia to a public debate. “Khaira lost the last election miserably to Bibi Jagir Kaur from Bholath. After having been rejected by the people of Bholath he has migrated to Chandigarh and is now trying to become politically relevant again by throwing challenges to senior SAD leaders”, they said.Advising Khaira not to over reach himself, saying he was already paying for his unbridled ambition with even the Pradesh Congress having started ignoring him, the leaders said if all the former leader wanted was a debate the same could be arranged but with a leader of the same league as his. Both senior akali leaders also advised Khaira to learn to recognize and digest the truth. “Is it not a truth that you yourself as well as your party were rejected by the people of the State who delivered a historic verdict reaffirming their faith in the SAD-BJP government led by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2012?”, they asked.
Both Dhillon and Grewal said the former mla should do some self introspection to understand who was responsible for the core problems of the people of Punjab. “You are making false allegations that major industries are shifting base from Punjab. When the industries call your bluff you claim they are being coerced. Even while the industrial climate in Punjab was on the upswing, the picture was gloomy nationally with multinationals leaving the country in droves under Congress led UPA rule. What answer do you have for POSCO set to exit Bengal and the Mittal group from Orissa?” the leaders asked.
Claiming that seeing was believing, the akali leaders said the people could themselves see the Rs 19,000 crore Bathinda refinary functioning with their own eyes. “Huge thermal power plants with a total capacity of 3900 mega watts are coming up across the State. All Khaira has to do is visit Rajpura, Talwandi Sabo or Goindwal to see the work for himself. We can even depute a former akali mla to facilitate this visit”, they added.
Both Dhillon and Grewal said despite such overtures they doubted whether Khaira would see the light of day and come to terms with the truth. “The fact is that he is blinded by frustration after his defeat at the hands of Bibi Jagir Kaur and is now taking out his frustration at the top akali leadership. This is not sane politics”, the senior leaders advised Khaira saying even Congressmen were inwardly happy that he was digging his own grave by his foolish antics.Calling Congress the enemy of the state, the leaders said that frustrated politicians from the Congress were hell bent upon stopping investors from investing in Punjab and were creating figures to suit their fiction. Mr Grewal said the truth was that annual percentage growth of GDP which was recorded at 7.9 during NDA rule in 2003 had gone down to 3.2 in 2012 during the Congress led UPA regime. He said similarly Punjab on its part had exceeded the targets set by the Planning Commission. He said against a target of 5.9 per cent Punjab had achieved 6.73 per cent. He said that the revenue receipts had also gone up during SAD-BJP rule as compared to the Congress government of 2002-2007. He said during five years of Congress rule (2002-2007) a total of 27339.66 crore revenue receipt were collected whereas during the five year of SAD-BJP rule (2007-2012) a total of 55148.89 crore were collected, which was 27809.23 crore more than the previous government.))