Amarinder slams Kejriwal on SYL stand, asks him to apologise

Chandigarh: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should "apologise to the people of Punjab" for his government's affidavit in the Supreme Court supporting Haryana's stand on Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal issue, state Congress chief Amarinder Singh said.

"Just by saying that your law officer acted on his own, you cannot escape the responsibility since you happen to be the head of the government. No law officer or counsel acts of his own as he appears in the court after being duly briefed by the government," he said today.

The Kejriwal government had on April 4 filed an affidavit in the apex court supporting Haryana's stand on completing the SYL canal.

"Either the Delhi Chief Minister's intentions towards Punjab are not honest or he has no control over what is happening in his government," Amarinder said in a statement.

He said Kejriwal knew what his counsel stated in the Supreme Court and had duly approved the affidavit.

The Delhi Chief Minister is now trying to wriggle out in his "characteristic manner" and put the blame on the "poor" legal counsel as the issue "exposed and boomeranged" on him, the state Congress chief said.

"His characteristic backing out, notwithstanding what his legal counsel stated in the Supreme Court, is in strong coherence with what he himself had said earlier that all states including Haryana and Delhi should get the water," Amarinder said.

"It is a typical case of Kejriwal trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds," he remarked, adding Kejriwal has all the right to take a stand he liked, but he must not try to play "dual games".

While in Punjab, Kejriwal said the state does not have a single drop of water to spare for Haryana, after reaching Delhi, he changed his stand saying all states have equal rights on the water," Amarinder said, adding, this smacked of "dubious political opportunism" on the Delhi CM's part.

Amarinder also took a dig at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, alleging they had played an "equally dubious" role on the issue by getting the legislation passed in the Assembly but delaying the Governor's assent to it.

This allowed the Centre and Haryana crucial time to approach the Supreme Court which ordered status quo thus defeating the very purpose of the Act passed in Punjab Assembly, he said.