Amarinder's 'debt waiver' promise just 'poll stunt': Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today described the Congress senior leader Amarinder Singh's promise of waiving farmers' debt if his party comes to power in the state, as an "election stunt".
He asked the Amritsar MP to explain why was he "mum on this issue when his party was in power both in the state and Centre".
Stating this on the sidelines of 'Sangat Darshan' programme in Pathankot assembly segment here, the Chief Minister said, "Captain (Amarinder) was just shedding crocodile tears on the issue just in false hope of regaining power in the state."
Badal said had Amarinder been serious on this issue, he might have got it resolved during UPA-I, when he was the head of the state.

He alleged that the former chief minister neither has "vision nor the will power" to get this issue resolved but was just raising it to "mislead" people.
He said the PPCC chief was heading the same party which was solely responsible for the "plight" of farmers in the state.

The Chief Minister said that the SAD-BJP coalition government "believed in actions" whereas both the Congress and AAP were trying to "mislead the people through hollow and false slogans".
Rejecting the pre-poll surveys, he said that these surveys don't have any "credibility".
Badal said none of such survey predicted SAD-BJP alliance government before 2012 polls but the people of the state gave verdict in favour of the alliance.

On allegations of state AAP leadership regarding sale of tickets by SAD, the Chief Minister said it was a case of "pot calling kettle black".
He alleged, "Every single person of the state knows that AAP has sold tickets to aspirants due to which widespread resentment is prevailing in its cadres".
Addressing the gatherings in village Naushera Naal Banda and Foolda, the Chief Minister asserted that under the "dynamic and visionary" leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NDA-government would "serve the country for minimum 25 years".
Reminding people about the "notorious" past of Congress, Badal said the party has "irrelevantly meddled" in the social, political, economic and religious affairs of the state.

Badal said that Congress party was the "perpetrator of a deep rooted conspiracy" to deprive the state of its waters by constructing the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, which was aimed at "ruining" the state by snatching its only available natural resources.