CHANDIGARH: Responding to Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal who claimed that Bhagwant Mann was the best-ever Punjab chief minister, state’s leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa said the distinction belonged to Partap Singh Kairon of the Congress.
While in Punjab last week, Kejriwal had given this certificate to Mann. Bajwa acknowledged why Kejriwal must praise “the poster boy of AAP“, but he contested the claim as “misleading”.
He wrote to the Delhi CM that Mann couldn’t even be compared with Kairon, “being poles apart in vision, working style, contribution to the state, and education.”
In support of his argument, Bajwa contrasted Kairon’s two master’s degrees from reputed international universities with Mann’s college dropout status. The LoP said: “Kairon left a well-paid job with Ford Motor Company in River Rouge, Michigan, to join the Ghadar movement. Before joining politics after independence, he was a peasant revolutionary with the Kirti group, while Mann was a comedian before entering politics”.
Bajwa said: “Kairon’s vision was for simultaneous industrial and agricultural growth of Punjab, for which he built textile industries in Amritsar and Ludhiana, besides a dyeing industry at Panipat. He built a fertiliser factory at Ropar and an electricity supply system for Bhakra, while Mann in his 18-month tenure, so far, has only made the Punjab industrialists flee to Uttar Pradesh. They signed MoUs worth 1.7 lakh crore with UP.”
The LoP said Kairon was among the founders of prominent institutes such as Chandigarh’s PGI, which was still the best in the region, while Mann who had promised to give Punjab 16 medical colleges in five years hadn’t started any of those projects yet. He said but Mann had “rendered the existing medical colleges without experts and required members of the faculty”. Accusing Mann of using a budget of Rs 750 crore for “fake publicity” of the AAP government, he said this money could maintain Kairon’s institutes.
While in Punjab last week, Kejriwal had given this certificate to Mann. Bajwa acknowledged why Kejriwal must praise “the poster boy of AAP“, but he contested the claim as “misleading”.
He wrote to the Delhi CM that Mann couldn’t even be compared with Kairon, “being poles apart in vision, working style, contribution to the state, and education.”
In support of his argument, Bajwa contrasted Kairon’s two master’s degrees from reputed international universities with Mann’s college dropout status. The LoP said: “Kairon left a well-paid job with Ford Motor Company in River Rouge, Michigan, to join the Ghadar movement. Before joining politics after independence, he was a peasant revolutionary with the Kirti group, while Mann was a comedian before entering politics”.
Bajwa said: “Kairon’s vision was for simultaneous industrial and agricultural growth of Punjab, for which he built textile industries in Amritsar and Ludhiana, besides a dyeing industry at Panipat. He built a fertiliser factory at Ropar and an electricity supply system for Bhakra, while Mann in his 18-month tenure, so far, has only made the Punjab industrialists flee to Uttar Pradesh. They signed MoUs worth 1.7 lakh crore with UP.”
The LoP said Kairon was among the founders of prominent institutes such as Chandigarh’s PGI, which was still the best in the region, while Mann who had promised to give Punjab 16 medical colleges in five years hadn’t started any of those projects yet. He said but Mann had “rendered the existing medical colleges without experts and required members of the faculty”. Accusing Mann of using a budget of Rs 750 crore for “fake publicity” of the AAP government, he said this money could maintain Kairon’s institutes.
