PM Modi's visit to Punjab 'political performance': Minister Harpal Singh Cheema

Chandigarh, Sep 10 (IANS) A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to flood-affected areas of Punjab, state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday slammed the visit, labelling it as a political performance rather than a genuine effort to help.

Cheema pointed out the glaring contrast between PM Modi’s swift sympathy for Afghanistan and his delayed, meagre assistance of Rs 1600 crore to Punjab, offered only after 30 days of silence. “While the Prime Minister offered sympathy and aid to Afghanistan within hours, it took him 30 days to remember the people of Punjab who have made immense sacrifices for our country,” Cheema told the media here.

He cited the Prime Minister's lack of empathy, saying that, instead of meeting with grieving families who lost loved ones, farmers whose crops were destroyed, and labourers whose homes were washed away, he only rubbed salt in their wounds.

Cheema lamented that the Prime Minister “did not wipe the tears of mothers whose sons were killed, did not hold the hands of sisters whose brothers perished, did not stand by wives whose husbands were lost, and did not support children whose parents were gone. He only came to bake his own political bread”.

The Finance Minister also reacted to an incident where Prime Minister Modi told state Cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Mundian, who was demanding a relief package of Rs 20,000 crore, that ‘aapko Hindi samaj nahi aati' (you do not understand Hindi). Cheema called the remark a deliberate insult to Punjab, its people, and the Punjabi language.

While displaying images of Cabinet Minister Mundian with the Prime Minister, Cheema said the picture clearly showed Mundian’s humble appeal for help and the Prime Minister’s arrogance. He said the Prime Minister's insult of the Punjabi language, on top of turning a blind eye to the flood victims, reveals his true hatred towards Punjab.

“We respect the Hindi language, which most of us have learned in schools. But to belittle a Cabinet minister of an elected state government on linguistic grounds is not just arrogance, it’s a betrayal of federal dignity,” he added.

Cheema also condemned the Prime Minister’s decision to meet BJP representatives and workers instead of flood-affected citizens. He shared pictures of BJP leaders who were portrayed as flood victims during the meeting.

“If he only wanted to meet with his party workers,” Cheema said, “he could have invited them to Delhi for a tea party instead of visiting Punjab and putting on this dramatic show”.

--IANS

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