Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has compared the Aam Aadmi Party leadership to the British Empire over Raghav Chadha’s appointment to the state advisory panel.
Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has compared the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership to the British Empire over Raghav Chadha’s appointment as the chairman of the advisory committee to the state government.
Criticising the AAP’s move, he said, “It reminds me of the days when the British Emperor would appoint a Viceroy in India to watch and safeguard his own interests.”
He said, “Chadha is the new Viceroy appointed by the Emperor Arvind Kejriwal with Bhagwant Mann acting as an obedient and subservient vassal.”
“What is Chadha’s experience to be the super-CM over Bhagwant Mann?” he asked in a strongly worded statement, adding, “I feel sad that Punjab, the land of all-time great emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh, will now be ruled over by a rank outsider with no experience in governance and that too when we already have a democratically elected government here.”
He said the way AAP was abusing Punjab’s resources to promote itself in states such as Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat was similar to the way the British were exploiting Indian resources in Britain.
What is Chadha’s locus standi to head an advisory committee that will advise the Punjab government?” he asked, adding that when there is an elected government with a Chief Minister and a cabinet answerable to the legislature, what is the point in constituting extra-constitutional bodies with extra-constitutional authorities?
“Chadha was already the de facto CM of Punjab. Now he has been vested with ‘legal’ authority that too illegally and unconstitutionally,” Warring said, adding that this was unprecedented in the history of Punjab.
He said the Congress party stood vindicated as it had been saying from day one that Bhagwant Mann will just be like a rubber stamp and real authority will be wielded by Kejriwal and he is doing it now through Chadha.
“We thought that the AAP leadership would have learned its lesson well in Sangrur, but they have clearly not, and had they learned any lessons, they wouldn’t have appointed an outsider with no experience to virtually head the state government and push the CM and his cabinet to the margins,” he said.
