Amarinder Singh slams AAP over walkout from all-party meeting

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the Aam Aadmi Party for their leaders walking out of an all-party meeting convened to evolve a consensus on the Centre’s agriculture laws and the farmers' agitation.

Amarinder said this has once again “exposed the double standards” of Arvind Kejriwal's party, which continued to put its “vested political interests” above those of the farmers.

Minutes before the resolution in support of the agitating farmers was to be passed, AAP leaders, including Harpal Singh Cheema, walked out of the meeting in protest against the CM's refusal to accept their demand for deployment of the Punjab Police personnel to protect the farmers protesting at the Delhi borders.

“After pretending for nearly four hours that they were one with the rest of Punjab in supporting the farmers in their hour of crisis, the AAP members walked out over a demand which no state government can accept,” said the chief minister in a statement here.

“Clearly, they had no intention, from the outset, of supporting the state and its farmers, which explains their convenient walkout minutes before the resolution was to be voted on,” he alleged.

Terming AAP's actions as part of a “well-planned” strategy, the CM said, “How is it possible that a party with pretensions of being a national outfit does not know that no state police cannot simply barge into another state.” “How can a party that claims to be pro-farmer walk out of a crucial meeting called to evolve a consensus on a critical issue relating to the farmers over a patently unlawful demand,” he asked.

“AAP cares neither for the farmers nor for Punjab as their actions have repeatedly shown,” alleged Amarinder Singh, adding that by refusing to rise above petty politics, the party had once again exposed itself as nothing but a “stooge of the BJP”.