Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Nitin Nabin for promising to recreate the historic era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab. He dismissed the promise as a “bogus dream”, claiming that such a recreation is historically and geographically impossible.
Warring said that Punjab faces several issues like the farm crisis, unemployment, corruption, drug menace and escalating gangster activity. “We need solutions to those pressing problems and not a rewind of history, which in any case is not possible”, he said.
“Nabin is not the first one to sell these dreams and people of Punjab are really not interested or impressed with such rhetoric as they are facing survival challenges,” he said.
“Instead of selling the Ranjit Singh era dreams, let us talk about the present crisis which the state is facing,” Warring told the BJP national president, while seeking his commitment that the BJP will cooperate with Punjab irrespective of the party that forms the government in the state.
“If the formation of a BJP government in Punjab is a precondition for the Centre to address the state’s problems, then we may well have to wait for some time,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“If the formation of a BJP government in Punjab is a precondition for the Centre to address the state’s problems, then we may well have to wait for some time,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Referring to the presence of several former Congress leaders, who are now with the BJP during Nabin’s visit, the PCC president said, “The fact that your current and the past state presidents are from the Congress reflects upon the plight of your organisation that you have to depend on outsiders and you still have the audacity to claim that you will form government in Punjab”.