BAGHAPURANA (MOGA): Raising its anti-corruption rhetoric for the upcoming Punjab elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday promised to jail four Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ministers in the Parkash Singh Badal government if voted to power.
Releasing the party manifesto at a massive rally in Baghapurana village near Moga, AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal levelled corruption charges against Tota Singh (agriculture), Adaish Partap Singh Kairon (food and civil supplies), Bikram Singh Majithia (revenue) and Sikander Singh Maluka (rural development). While Kairon is the son-in-law of chief minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal, Majithia is the brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal (wife of the CM’s son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal).
This is probably the first time a party has published electoral documents promising to imprison political rivals. The team that prepared the manifesto was led by former journalist Kanwar Sandhu, who read out some points of the manifesto.
Kejriwal’s speech did not touch upon any of the recent controversies dogging the party, be it the sacking of Sucha Singh Chhotepur as state AAP convener or the failure of talks with former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. He, however, did underline how “AAP has been the first party since Independence to sack three ministers (in Delhi) over corruption charges”.
The focus of Kejriwal’s speech lay on farmers and corruption.
{{/usCountry}}The focus of Kejriwal’s speech lay on farmers and corruption.
{{/usCountry}}The AAP convener began his speech by reiterating his promise to bag the ‘holy city’ status for Amritsar and Ananadpur Sahib within two months of coming to power. He then went on to blame successive Congress and SADBJP governments for “snatching the joy out of farmers’ lives” over the last 10-15 years.
Kejriwal accused Tota Singh of supplying spurious pesticides to cotton farmers, Kairon of making foodgrain worth Rs 12,000 crore “go missing”, and Majithia of running a narcotics racket. “They will be jailed, and their property will be confiscated to build schools, hospitals and roads,” he said, adding that buses owned by Badal will be handed over to unemployed youngsters.
The manifesto made specific mention of a plan to re-enact the Sir Chhotu Ram Act-1934 to ease debts owed to non-institutional moneylenders. “Under no circumstances will the interest exceed the principal amount,” he said.
Another key promise was the waiver of bank loans for “poor” farmers, labourers, SCs and BCs, besides a complete halt on coercive action by banks against defaulters until December 2018.