No compromise formula evolved yet to douse fire in Punjab Congress
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Nov, 2021 11:42 AM
New Delhi/Chandigarh, Nov 9 (IANS) The problems in the Punjab Congress seem to be far from over as the Channi government is being constantly cornered by its own state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and the top leadership has failed to evolve a consensus among the warring factions.
Sources say State in-charge Harish Chaudhary tried to intervene on the issue by calling a meeting on Monday but Sidhu did not relent and left. Chaudhary did not respond to calls.
While the party is believed to be rethinking on a new plan to pacify both the factions, Sidhu is likely to be called to Delhi for a final meeting.
Prior to the Monday meeting, Sidhu addressed the media and later tweeted, "09.04.2021: the HC directed new SIT to complete investigation in 6 months. 07.05.2021: New SIT Constituted. 07.11.2021: 6 months over. What's status of Investigation? Where is Chargesheet?"
His continued tirade is against the appointments made on the posts of Attorney General (AG) and Director General of Police. Though the AG has hit back for politicising the office.
Sidhu said, "Technically, any lawyer can become AG and any IPS officer can become DG but if we talk about Morals and Ethics of Government, as we promised to the people of Punjab that we will give Justice to them in Sacrilege Cases,a lawyer who has procured blanket protections to the main accused persons in that case and an IPS officer, who was the 1st Investigating Officer and gave clean chits to the main conspirators, Can we appoint them as AG & DG when the case is still at the stage of investigation?"
Not only Sidhu, but Congress MP Manish Tewari has been critical of the government's stand in the matter of jurisdiction of BSF.
Tewari said in a tweet on Monday, "It has been close to a month now Central Govt by notification has extended BSF operational remit in Punjab to 50 Kilometres.Why till now notification has not been challenged by Punjab Govt India under Article 131 in Supreme Court of India Is opposition to it mere tokenism?"
According to sources, Amarinder Singh will convene a meeting of leaders close to him in a few days to consider the formation of his new party, which will include all the leaders of the anti-Sidhu faction.
The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Khalid, Shriram Chaurasia, Zishan Ahmad, Vikas Kesarwani and Krishna Kumar. Inspector (Kareli) Anupam Sharma said the arrested persons had sold SIM cards to law-breakers at high prices after creating fake IDs.
The ex-CM of Punjab recalled that Rawat himself had publicly stated after meeting him that he was satisfied by his government's track record on the 2017 poll promises.
It is learnt that Channi in his first meeting with the Prime Minister after becoming chief minister of Punjab requested that the Centre take back its decision to postpone paddy procurement by 10 days. The Centre has postponed the procurement of paddy by 10 days due to rain in Punjab and Haryana. Earlier the procurement was supposed to start from October 1 but now it will start from October 11.
Scotching speculation to the contrary, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday made it clear he was not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but had no intention of continuing in the Congress either, which he said was going downhill with senior leaders completely ignored and not given a voice.
The meeting lasted for over two hours and the issues raised by Sidhu will be put before the Cabinet on October 4, sources in the party said.After the meeting at Punjab Bhavan, where AICC observer Harish Chaudhary was also present, both Channi and Sidhu left the meeting venue without talking to the media.
