Sunday Interview: The AAP in Punjab is more hype than substance'

Amarinder Singh, the former chief minister of Punjab and state Congress president, wants a drug-free and debt-free state. In an interview to Tanveer Thakur, Capt. Singh explains why political parties are already in election mode though the Assembly elections are 11 months away.

Punjab seems to be in election mode already. Is the Congress ready for the battle? What have you done since you took over as the state Congress president to motivate your party’s cadres?

The Congress is absolutely ready for the elections. Our cadres are already active. I have personally been going around the state interacting with the youth in colleges and universities by visiting them or through video-conferencing through Skype or Google Hangouts. We have also got some prominent leaders like Manpreet Badal and Hans Raj Hans joining us. Soon we will be starting district-level party meetings.

The emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party has made the Punjab electoral battle a triangular contest. How do you view the AAP in comparison to the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)? Do you believe that it is getting public attention, or is it more hype?

You have put it correctly, the AAP is absolutely more hype than substance. It peaked in Punjab in 2014 and then its downfall started. The party is vertically divided into three since the 2014 general elections. We have seen similar things happening in 2011 when People’s Party of Punjab mobilised large number of people. The AAP is a disorganised and disjointed mass of people without any leader, programme or agenda.

They only know how to abuse people and find faults with others without offering any solutions. Such experiments are never successful. Such winds blow during election time and fade away as soon as they start.

In the past you have raised issues of drug smuggling and addiction in Punjab. Do you see any change in the situation? How do you respond to the charges of the AAP that you are soft on the Akalis in the matter of drug smuggling?

The drug situation in the state has gone from bad to worse. The government has jailed small-time addicts, who should be sent to rehabilitation centres as they need treatment. It has not touched any big fish — the real peddlers and smugglers who are working under the Akalis’ patronage.

Since the AAP has nothing to say against me, it is trying to manufacture lies and accuse me of being soft towards Akalis. Let me remind them — Who jailed Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal for corruption? Unlike AAP, I don’t resort to abuse as I maintain decency and decorum even while criticising my opponents.

Last year Punjab witnessed two major terrorist strikes after a gap of many years. Is it an ominous sign of terrorism returning to the state? If your party comes to power, do you have any specific strategy to deal with it?

I certainly don’t see any revival of terrorism in Punjab. People of Punjab will never allow the dark days to return. But, yes, we have to remain alert against such attacks because it is our porous borders from where terrorists sneak in. We have to evolve effective mechanisms so that the terrorists do not sneak in and cause damage. Once we form the government we will work closely with the Central government since external security does not fall in the state’s jurisdiction. There has to be effective coordination between the state and the Central government.

The Opposition has charged that your family members had Swiss bank accounts. Recently a court in Ludhiana issued a notice to your son for lying to the income-tax department about his foreign accounts. How to you respond to all this?

I have already clarified that none of our family members ever had a Swiss bank account. We have got letters from the HSBC bank, where my wife and son were alleged to have accounts, that they never had any account in any of the bank’s branches. The matter was deliberately raked up at the behest of Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who does not seem to be able to overcome the trauma of his defeat at my hands in Amritsar.

The income-tax department had started the investigations way back in 2011. They know nothing is coming out of these investigations and yet they want to rake up the issue as it is election time. The complaint by the income-tax department in Ludhiana court is totally false, fictitious and a fabrication based on a stolen document.

The Congress has hired media strategist Prashant Kishor, the SAD has also hired an agency for highlighting its achievements, and the AAP claims it has more strategists than all other parties. Many now see elections as a battle of strategists where spin-doctoring can bury real issues.

Real issues cannot escape nor can they be avoided. We will have to confront issues like the sliding economy, drug scourge and unemployment. Basic issues can never be wished away. But yes, as things keep on changing, the strategies also need to be reworked and re-looked upon. Mr Kishor proved his mettle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. Everybody likes to have the best team around so we opted for the best strategist.

Can you spell out briefly your vision for Punjab?

I want a drug-free and debt-free Punjab. Debt and drugs have devastated Punjab. While drugs are eating into our younger generation, the debt has pushed Punjab into bankruptcy. It’s the debts owed by farmers that have, in a number of cases, led to suicides.