CM Badal ‘waves off’ nephew Badal

He later read out figures from what seemed like a white paper prepared by the government to counter claims of both Congress and the ousted FM on the fiscal health of Punjab. While he attributed the current financial crisis to a mix of mainly three factors — long period of militancy,tax sops to industry in neighbouring states and unfair devolution of Central taxes to states — the CM said the state further slipped in fiscal parameters owing to mismanagement by the successive Congress governments in the state.

“After we came to power after the end of militancy in 1997,we were able to keep the debt to gross state domestic product (GSDP) ratio at the level of 35.30 per cent. However,it jumped to 45 per cent during Congress rule and it has again been reined in by us to 32.8 per cent by our government by increasing our GSDP and getting higher revenue from value added tax and excise collections,” he said.

After his tirade against the Congress,Badal finally came to the debt waiver controversy raging in the state,saying a special committee was formed to bail out three fiscally stressed states — Punjab,West Bengal and Kerala — but no proposal or conditions had been sent to the state government in this regard. Here,he did not refrain from taking a dig at his nephew,saying if any such offer or conditions had been privately conveyed to somebody,“I am not aware”. “We are not mad not to accept a loan waiver offer from the Centre. But where is it?”

He later also gave a break-up of what comprised Punjab’s loan and what is within the Centre’s power to waive off. Here,he took a potshot at another Cabinet minister,Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla,for shooting off a letter to him,asking him to avail of this historic opportunity. Next he reiterated the government’s commitment to the other issue raked by Manpreet — subsidies to farmers,poor and the backward classes,saying it was a commitment that would be honoured at all costs.

At this juncture,Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal made a dramatic entry at the press meet with rebel SAD MLA from Anandpur Sahib,Sant Ajit Singh,who had only a week ago expressed allegiance to the ousted FM at the latter’s press meet. After a brief controversy over who should read out his statement to the media,the MLA did it himself,heaping praises on the party and terming Manpreet’s conduct and stand on subsidies “deplorable”.

After he read out the statement,Sukhbir made a hasty exit from the conference,leaving it to his ‘statesman’ father whose humour was intact while talking about his nephew’s rebellion. “When Manpreet was down with dengue,I cancelled an important meeting to see him and took him to PGI. Soon I,too,reached PGI with a rib injury. All this while I kept counselling him not to issue statements against the party. I did best what I could. The rest is not within my powers. My brother and I are referred to as Ram-Laxman ki jodi but when it comes to the party,there is nothing bigger than it,” he added.

He did not end without giving journalists another shot of his humour. “You are the best surgeons available in the state. You have already done the post mortem of the entire controversy.”