Punjab CM hits out at 'ignorant' AAP over allegations of collusion with BJP on farm laws

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday hit out at the AAP which earlier in the day posted a video of a person which the AAP claimed to be a farmer who said Captain Amarinder was part of the central cabinet committee which drafted the farm ordinances. Calling the video doctored, Captain Amarinder said AAP is attempting to befool people of Punjab.

Hitting back at the AAP, the Punjab CMO said, "from sharing a selectively edited video of his (Chief Minister’s statements) to the release of a list of the final committee members, the AAP spokesperson had made yet another desperate attempt to sell his party’s pack of lies to the people of Punjab," adding that the "actions showed that Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP had hit rock bottom in its desperation to promote its political agenda in the state."

“If they think that by sharing a doctored video they can befool the people of Punjab then AAP leaders are even more ignorant about this state then I had believed them to be,” said the Chief Minister.

“Had AAP bothered to share the complete videos of my statements, the truth of what I have been saying would have been endorsed, which is obviously why they have carefully doctored my recorded statements,” Captain Amarinder said, adding that when the first meeting of the committee was held, Punjab was not part of it. 

"All this is a matter of record, which AAP clearly does not believe in checking out," the CM said in a statement, adding that the AAP spokesperson failed to do a cross-checking of the facts before putting it out in front of the public.

"Or perhaps, he was simply following in the footsteps of his mentor, Kejriwal, who was a shameless master of deceit, with no qualms about trying to palm off lies as the truth," said the Chief Minister further.

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AAP alleges "Punjab CM betrayed farmers"

Earlier in the day, AAP took to Twitter to post tweets against the Punjab CM, alleging that the CM colluded with the Centre in introducing the farm laws and is now "shedding crocodile tears".

The AAP's spokesperson Raghav Chadda said an RTI application has revealed that Punjab CM was a part of the Central Committee for farm ordinance under NITI Aayog. The AAP also shared a clip of a farmer showing some documents, AAP quotes him saying that the Punjab CM along with his finance minister had attended a Modi cabinet meeting in August 2019 which discussed MSP provisions of the laws. 

"On 1 July 2019, a high-level Chief Ministerial committee was constituted by Niti Aayog for agriculture. In that committee, CMs of Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab were included - for this ordinance. Our Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, who is shedding crocodile tears with his MLAs for farmers had attended a Modi cabinet meeting on August 16, 2019 along with his finance minister - Manpreet Singh Badal for discussing MSP. Even Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife were present at that meeting," said the farmer is AAP's video. 

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