New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has been recently at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security lapse in Punjab. Channi recently hit back at the party with a quote from BJP’s icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
In a tweet, Channi wrote one of the quotes by Sardar Patel along with his portrait. “One who cares more about life than duty, he should not take big responsibility in a country like India!” he tweeted.
In an interview with NDTV, Channi said that the BJP was trying to get political mileage out of the Prime Minister’s security breach issue. He refuted BJP’s allegation that Punjab’s Congress government endangered Prime Minister Modi’s life with “murderous intention.”
"Where was the threat to his life? Nobody was within a kilometre of you. No stone was thrown, no bullet was fired, no slogans were raised. How can you say 'I made it alive'! Such a sensitive statement from such a big leader. People voted you as Prime Minister - you should make responsible statements. You are saying we want to kill our Prime Minister," Channi had said.
The Chief Minister further said that PM Modi took a u-turn on his way to address a rally in Ferozepur to conceal the fact that the turnout was poor at his rally and that the BJP was using this incident to impose Central rule in Punjab.
"It is a deep conspiracy to defame Punjab and Punjabiyat. It is an attempt to vitiate the situation in the state. It is an attempt to impose President's Rule in Punjab," said the Punjab CM to NDTV.
"The maximum number of people involved in the freedom struggle were from Punjab. It is therefore wrong to allege Punjab and Punjabis of such acts," he had further added.