NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH, Mar 23: As the war of words between Arun Jaitley and Amarinder Singh escalated, the BJP leader today took on his Congress rival for calling him an “outsider” to Amritsar by asking which State does his party chief Sonia Gandhi belong.
Angry over Jaitley “dragging” Gandhi into the issue, Singh retorted by reminding him of Indian tradition where daughter-in-law is the “real inheritor” of the family legacy.
“Despite my ancestral roots in Punjab, Captain Sahib (Amarinder) called me an ‘outsider’ and a ‘pseudo’ Punjabi. Will he be kind enough to tell me which State in India does (Congress President) Mrs Sonia Gandhi belong to?
“Regrettably, he is resorting to his old USP — lower the level of debate through personalised and discourteous language…. I have to resist the temptation of reciprocating in the same manner. However, a polite response is necessary,” Jaitley wrote on his website.
Taking a dig at Singh, Jaitley also said that he had still not come to Amritsar.
“But will he ever be available to the people of Amritsar at all. Past experience shows that he has been inaccessible not only to the people but also to his own party leaders including his ministers. His availability is only for a few hours since otherwise his palace is always inaccessible to the common man,” said the BJP leader.
Singh soon hit back, saying, “I always thought Jaitley was a gentleman, but I am sorry to read about his shameless attempts to question the statehood of Gandhi when she had nothing to do about what I had said yesterday in a newspaper interview about Mr Jaitley.”
“But let me remind Jaitley of our great Indian culture and tradition which accepts the daughters-in-law as the real inheritors of the house and not the daughters irrespective of which place they come from,” he said in a statement.
“Sonia Gandhi was married to late Shri Rajiv Gandhi 45 years ago and she obviously belongs to UP and India,” Singh said.
“Every time you (BJP) have tried to rake up this issue (Sonia’s origin issue) you have badly lost as people of the country have repeatedly rejected your chauvinistic and xenophobic rabble rousing,” he said.
Singh said it was too obvious as to who is lowering the level of debate by “desperately trying to drag someone who has nothing to do in an argument.”
“Jaitley understands well he is badly losing,” he said.
Alleging that Jaitley’s “newfound love” for his Punjabi roots was sheer “opportunism”, Amarinder asked if he had so much attachment with his “Punjabi roots”, why did he need to go to MP to contest an election and why not Punjab.
“And let Mr Jaitley tell me when did he last visit Punjab, leave aside contesting an election from here,” he asked.
Replying to Jaitley’s charges on his accessibility, Singh said, “My accessibility and affection of people must be already known to you by now after the announcement of my candidature from here (Amritsar).”
“I don’t want to say as to whose accessibility should be questioned; the one who has been in electoral politics for last four and a half decades or the one who has always chosen backdoor entry to the legislature,” he added.
Jaitley, a Rajya Sabha MP, is contesting his first-ever Parliamentary polls.
“My political office in New Moti Bagh Palace (Patiala) remains open seven days a week from 8 in the morning till 8 in the evening and Jaitely is welcome to visit anytime that suits his convenience and have a coffee with me,” he said.(PTI)
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