Oppn fumes over Delhi-Punjab MoU, accuses Bhagwant Mann of 'selling interests of state'
India Today
After the AAP-led government signed the MoU, opposition parties accused Bhagwant Mann of "selling the interests of the state to Delhi in the name of knowledge sharing".
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his New Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal came under direct attack from the opposition Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal after the AAP-led governments signed an MoU for knowledge sharing.
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, while speaking to India Today on Wednesday, accused Bhagwant Mann of selling the interests of the state to Delhi in the name of knowledge sharing.
"First time an independent state chief minister tried to sell the rights of Punjab, that too not to a complete state. Kejriwal, in my eyes and the eyes of anybody else, is just a glorified Mayor of Delhi, which is not even a state. Because neither does he has police under his control nor the Municipal corporation is under him. Bhagwant Mann's act will convert Punjab into a colony of Delhi," Partap Singh Bajwa said.
Bajwa said that history would never pardon Bhagwant Mann. He said that the MoU seems to have been designed by Kejriwal, who wanted to "rule Punjab by proxy last time, but the Punjabis understood in time and the AAP could not form the government."
"But this time he (Kejriwal) has been successful, by portraying a local Punjabi leader, Bhagwant Mann. I think before he announced Bhagwant Mann, they already had an understanding that he would only declare him a CM but would be ruling from Delhi and this is how it is," Bajwa said, adding that the administrative decisions in Punjab were being taken by Arvind Kejriwal and his aides.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal also shared similar views on the issue of MoU.
"Chief minister Bhagwant Mann sold off the interests of Punjab to Delhi in the garb of a knowledge-sharing agreement and now AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal has become the de-facto chief minister of Punjab," Sukhbir Badal said.
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