Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who is contesting the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, on Saturday lashed out at his Congress opponent, Amarinder Singh through his Facebook page. Mr. Jaitley said Captain Singh was a self-obsessed politician who created fake propaganda and relied on his “feudal instrument” in his State but had no vision for the constituency he sought to represent. “He relishes in his own image where he believes that he is a monarch in a democracy,” he wrote.
Mr. Jaitley said Captain Singh had so far not spoken a word on what he achieved for Punjab during his tenure as Chief Minister nor had a single credible speech to boast from his experience as former MP or as a legislator in Punjab. “He has not uttered a word regarding what he will do for Amritsar. He can’t even tell the people that he will be accessible. His track record of accessibility is poor,” he wrote.
Captain Singh had no qualms pontificating on communal violence when he himself had been nominated by the very party guilty of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, said Mr. Jaitley. Retaliating, Captain Singh said Mr. Jaitley was not only “alien to the Holy City” but was unaware that he had, as Chief Minister, prepared a vision document for Amritsar in 2006.
Responding on the 1984 jibe, Captain Singh said BJP stalwart L.K. Advani and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal too had encouraged the government to use the military option on the Golden Temple. He recalled that leaders of the BJP and the RSS were involved in the anti-Sikh violence after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
