Adding fuel to reports of contention within the Punjab Congress over who will head the party in the 2022 state polls, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced that while he will be contesting the 2022 state elections, it will be the All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Sonia Gandhi who would take a call on leadership.
The declaration comes amidst the reports of senior Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu being approached by the Aam Aadmi Party, with reports that he is currently “negotiating” with party high command now.
“Navjot is very much a part of the Congress and had been in touch with the party high command in that capacity,” said Captain Amarinder Singh. Sidhu and Amarinder Singh had a public spat in 2019, prompting the state party high command to seek a report into the issue.
Meanwhile, gearing up for 2022 elections, Singh, who had earlier declared that the 2017 election was to be his last, now says that it was his party colleagues who persuaded him to get on the wagon again.
With the Congress party struggling with image issues in the state, they have plans to get Prashant Kishor onboard to shape the Congress poll campaign in 2022. According to Singh, Kishor has responded positively to the offer.
“Kishor has said he would be quite happy to come and help and reports of him denying are not true. I had discussed the matter with party president Sonia Gandhi who had left the decision to me. 55 of the 80 members of the legislative assembly were in favour of bringing in Kishor to handle the campaign”, said Captain Amarinder.
He further claimed that Kishor had denied being in touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in this regard.
“Kishor is a family member and he has ruled out any association with either Navjot Sidhu or AAP, contrary to speculation in the media, and contrary to any claims on this count by Arvind Kejriwal,” he added.
Central government disrupting India's federal structure, agriculture is a state subject: Singh
Calling the recent 'Farming Produce, Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020' a brazen attempt to erode and destabilise the country’s federal structure, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that the state would fight it.
Singh said that the state rejected these reforms as they could trigger farmer unrest paving the way for disbanding the MSP regime as well as the food-grain procurement regime, triggering unrest among the state’s farmers.
“We oppose Centre’s move to suppress the rights of the states, as enshrined under the Indian Constitution. We will fight against direct and detrimental interference in the well-established agriculture produce marketing system of the state. Any move like this shall severely and adversely impact the food security of the nation, something we have toiled for since the green revolution,” he said.
Accusing the Centre of habitually taking sudden decisions and forcing them on states, without taking their views into account, Singh said that such actions during pandemic crisis can have serious economic, social and law and order consequences.
“The farmers will not gain but will actually suffer at the hands of traders due to the legislative change. The Centre had not even created any dispute redressal mechanism, and had not consulted the state governments, which would be left to handle the consequences of this hasty action. The well-oiled agriculture produce marketing system in Punjab served the state well for 60 years. The state has in place a well-developed and state-of-the-art infrastructure, both for open marketing of produce and its seamless transportation from the farm gates to grain markets and godowns."
"State government has already made necessary amendments to the Punjab APMC Act to provide for setting up of regulated grain markets even in the private sector for specific produces. As such, there is no further need of a central law to interfere with the already well established marketing system in Punjab,” he said.
