Chandigarh, Jul 13 (PTI) Newly appointed Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma on Sunday hit out at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for his remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign visits, saying the kind of language used by him does not behove the post he holds.
Addressing a gathering of party leaders and workers after taking over the charge, Sharma said, if the chief minister speaks “street language” then he will get a reply in the same coin.
“We know how to speak in a courteous way, but if that’s the kind of language he speaks, then he will get the reply in the same coin,” Sharma, the Pathankot MLA, said.
On the occasion of assuming charge, several prominent party leaders including Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, other leaders Manpreet Badal, Manoranjan Kalia and Preneet Kaur, were present.
Sharma thanked his party leadership for entrusting him with the responsibility as the working president.
Attacking the AAP government in Punjab, he alleged, “for over the past three years, not a government but a circus is running in the state. The chief minister does not have control over his words.” In politics, every party, every individual keeps their views before the people, he said, said adding that politics is a fight of ideologies, not of personal rivalry or enmity.
Criticising Mann, he saud said “such language” comes from a man who is the chief minister of a state and whose father had been a teacher. Such a language does not behove the post which Mann holds, he added.
He is the chief minister, but he neither has etiquette, nor control over the words he uses or any respect for constitutional institutions, Sharma alleged.
“A country’s prime minister is not just an individual, but the pride of the country. I also condemn what the chief minister said about the Home Minister,” he said.
Several BJP leaders have criticised Mann for his recent remarks against Modi’s foreign visits. The Ministry of External Affairs too had disapproved of the comments, terming them “irresponsible” and “unwarranted”.
Without naming Mann, the MEA had said the government of India “disassociates” itself from remarks made by a “high state authority” that undermined India’s ties with friendly countries.
On Thursday, Mann had criticised Modi for celebrating an honour from a country with a population of just 10,000 while “neglecting” issues faced by 140 crore Indians.
Despite the MEA’s disapproval, Mann on Friday again raised the issue in the Punjab Assembly and said he had the right to question foreign policy. PTI SUN OZ OZ
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