Punjab Dialogue next month: Kejri

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 9

Buoyed by the public participation at its events, the Aam Aadmi Party will soon launch a Punjab Dialogue to comprehend the depth of problems before drawing a roadmap to address these, party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said.

“Just as in Delhi we spoke to the people in the mohallas, next month we will begin a Punjab Dialogue, speak to people to understand their problems, drugs, agriculture, farmers’ suicide, unemployment, ... janta will give suggestions and based on the dialogue, we will prepare a blueprint,” Kejriwal told The Tribune in an exclusive interaction.

The Delhi Chief Minister plans to visit the state for a week from February 20 and intends to increase the periodicity and frequency gradually as elections approach. The party’s CM candidate will be announced in due course and cleared by the Political Affairs Committee, he said.

Rejecting the charge that people from other parties are being accommodated at the expense of those associated with AAP for long, he said, “Just because one joined four years ago, one cannot claim seniority; this is not a party of a handful, but belongs to the people.”

Insisting that the AAP is built around the response of people, Kejriwal said Punjab’s voters are looking for a clean government since they are fed up with the politics of the SAD-BJP and the Congress. Describing these parties as two sides of the same coin, he said that whenever either party comes to power it registers a few cases against some leaders from the other party, but never arrests any and these cases gradually lapse. 

Kejriwal alleged that a couple of years ago, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh prevailed upon the Centre not to register a case against a prominent Punjab minister whose name is linked to drugs. Brushing aside Amarinder's barb of Kejriwal and his Haryanvi roots, the Delhi CM insisted that “I am an Indian”. 

On providing succour to the victims of the 1984 massacre or those who suffered during terrorism, he said both need to be provided justice. “The AAP government set up a Special Investigation Team to go into the 1984 riots.”

As for inter-state problems like river-water sharing, he said these could be resolved through good intention. Likening AAP infighting to that in any family, Kejriwal said tickets will be allotted through a process of nominations by local groups and repeated background checks. "Today, Punjab needs new energy, there is awareness. AAP in Delhi promised and is providing non-corrupt governance... we have been working to improve the lot of public schools and hospitals, reduce power tariff and provide 20,000 litres of water free to each household and gave a Rs 50-crore package to farmers..We are for the poor and middle class," he said.