Are you thinking of Afghanistan? Chidambaram on Punjab/C'garh queries
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 Aug, 2021 10:57 AM
Panaji, Aug 26 (IANS) Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday asked media persons if they were confusing Punjab with Afghanistan, when asked to comment on the reports of rebellion in the party's ranks in the northern Indian state.
"There is no rebellion in Chhattisgarh, there is no rebellion in Punjab. You are mixing up Afghanistan. There is no rebellion," Chidambaram told reporters at the state Congress headquarters in Panaji.
Chidambaram was addressing a press conference at the fag-end of his two-day visit to the state in the capacity as the All India Congress Committee's senior observer in charge of Goa ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls.
Chidambaram said that "internal matters" within the Congress party should not be construed as rebellion, citing the example of the change of leadership in BJP-led Karnataka, where a sitting chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai.
"These are internal matters which are discussed within the party. Did you describe the Karnataka change of guard as a rebellion?" Chidambaram said.
In a first show of solidarity and strength, Punjab Congress unit's newly-appointed President Navjot Singh Sidhu, accompanying 62 legislators, comprising many state Cabinet ministers, on Wednesday paid obeisance at the Golden Temple here.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the Central government, saying that its wrong decision during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic killed 50 lakh people.
Breaking a long silence on issues ranging from local to national, former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday spoke on diverse issues like the present political crisis in Rajasthan and Punjab and also demanded a free probe on the phone tapping issue.
Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday said that it has arrested Raj Kumar Khatri, a suave cheat who duped a Canadian citizen of crores of rupees by passing himself as the owner of an upcoming five star hotel.
At least two mobile phone accounts used by Rahul Gandhi were among the 300 verified Indian numbers listed as potential targets by an official Indian client of the Israeli surveillance technology vendor, NSO Group, The Wire has reported.
While Akali Dal boycotted the meeting on the issue of farmers protest against the three farm laws, the Congress said that all the MPs should have been briefed and not only the floor leaders.