Amarinder facing 'political oblivion', PR minister

Chandigarh, Sept 10 (UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today described the reaction of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh as "midsummer mumblings of a man faced with certain political oblivion".

By speaking so arrogantly about the decision of the House to expel him and the judgment of the House Committee, Capt Singh had further compounded his problems and his reactions to the media after the assembly decision amounted to fresh breach of privilege, Public Relations Minister and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia stated here.

Addressing mediapersons, Mr Majithia further said that the House judgment was also proof of the fact that the former Chief Minister's so anti-corruption drive was nothing more than an attempt to divert people's attention from the massive corruption that he had himself been indulging in as Chief Minister.

"The wheel has come full circle for the man who resorted to cheap theatricals as Chief Minister on the issue of corruption. From false bravado and sloganeering as Chief Minister then to petty breast beating as a befallen leader now, it is truly quite a fall for Amarinder," he said.

Mr Majithia expressed surprise over Capt Singh's remarks that his expulsion from the House was 'unconstitutional and that it smacked of political vendetta'. This amounted to questioning the collective wisdom of the elected representatives of the people, he added.

The setting up of the 9-member House Committee to inquire into the Amritsar Improvement Trust 32.10 acre land scam case of 2006 was a unanimous decision of the House and the Congress party had given its consent in writing, he said. None of three members of the Congress on the Committee ever questioned the validity or constitutionality fo the Committee, he claimed.

"If the Committee was not constitutionally correct, then why did Amarinder himself appear before it," he asked.

Regarding the charge of political vendetta, Mr Majithia pointed out that the principal complainant against Capt Singh in the land scam was the then Congress MLA Bir Devinder Singh. A former Chairperson of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, Mrs Ratna who opposed Capt Singh's decision on the land scam was sacked when she refused to be a party to the corrupt deal, he added while pointing out that the former chief minister got the 'job' done by Mrs Ratna's successor, Jugal Kishore Sharma, then a Congress MLA. UNI HS JS2110