Amarinder accuses Kejriwal of CIA links, backs Chhotepur

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, August 26

Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh here today accused AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal of having links with US intelligence agency CIA, even as he backed beleaguered AAP leader Sucha Singh Chhotepur.

Addressing a Kisan Chetna rally, he said, “When he (Kejriwal) was an income tax officer, he ran an NGO which received funds from abroad, particularly the US. I have been told by reliable sources that the CIA used to fund the NGO. The PM should order an inquiry into Kejriwal’s background.”

Praising his old friend (Chhotepur), he said, “He is 100 per cent honest, a man of unimpeachable integrity and character. I know him for the past 36 years and am really fond of him. The Uttar Pradesh men who are pulling the strings in AAP have conspired to defame Chhotepur.”

He told the gathering that Chhotepur had wept like a child when Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal was assassinated. “He is an emotional man. He was very close to Longowal, who himself was an honest politician,” Amarinder added.

The rally was organised under the leadership of Partap Singh Bajwa, Rajya Sabha MP and chairman of the PPCC committee on farmers’ issues. Capt said if the party came to power, he would ensure that the farmers’ loans were waived and their land was not taken away.

“We owe it to you as you have done your due and now it is our responsibility to bail you out,” he told the farmers.

He said the Centre must come forward to help the hard-working Punjabis who were feeding the nation. He reminded the gathering that in 2008, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had undertaken a similar initiative and waived farmers’ debts.

Targeting the Badal government, he said, “The industry has disappeared from the state’s map, while the agriculture sector is floundering as the farmers have to cope with very high prices of inputs. Under the ‘leadership’ of Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab takes one step forward and two steps backward.”

Capt reiterated that once back in power, he would bring the father-son duo to book for their acts of omission and commission.