Amarinder hits back at Jaitley; says he is too "alien" to Amritsar to understand the issues

Jaitley had accused Amarinder of lacking vision for Amritsar's development

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Press Trust of India Amritsar
Last Updated : Apr 05 2014 | 5:38 PM IST
Hitting back at Arun Jaitley for accusing him of having no vision for development of Amritsar, Congress leader Amarinder Singh today said he had prepared a vision document for Amritsar way back in 2006, and charged Jaitley with "ignorance".

"My vision paper, which I had prepared in 2006 for Amritsar, when I hardly knew that I will have to contest from here, is already in the public domain," Amarinder said here.

He further said that he could understand Jaitley's ignorance about it since he is too "alien" to this place to understand the issues being discussed in Amritsar.

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Earlier today, Jaitley accused Amarinder of lacking vision for Amritsar's development. Both Amarinder and Jaitley are locked in a Lok Sabha poll battle from Amritsar constituency.

Amarinder also criticised Jaitley for pronouncing Congress guilty of 1984 incidents.

"If you pronounce my party to be guilty of 1984, then you must pronounce your leader L K Advani guilty as well as Parkash Singh Badal who all either pressurised or approved of the decision to send army into Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple)," he said, addressing Jaitely.

On Jaitley's "feudal instrument" remark, Amarinder attacked ruling SAD leaders, saying, "He (Jaitely) should look at his Akali patrons like Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal, who have feudalised everything in the state from politics to economics."

"Ask any Punjabi, as you are alien to this place, as who is feudal, me or your patrons, who have monopolised every business, be it liquor, sand, cable, transport, besides presiding over the illicit drug trade through Bikram Majithia (Punjab minister)," he said.

Taking another dig at the Badals, the Congress candidate asked his rival whether he knew that "while Badals are getting richer and Punjab is getting bankrupt".

Referring to the corruption cases against him, Amarinder said, "It was actually he (Jaitely) who had drafted the complaint and now, was trumpeting it as if it was verdict against me."

He asked Jaitley to wait for the court's verdict and not to try to be "the complainant and the judge".
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First Published: Apr 05 2014 | 5:30 PM IST

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