Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal says he has not been invited to the event, and he is so upset that he has shot off an angry letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A major cancer hospital in Punjab, to be inaugurated today in a function attended by Rahul Gandhi, has been dragged into a political controversy ahead of national polls due by May. CM Badal’s aide quipped that “Rahul Gandhi would need Jupiter’s escape velocity to escape the ire of Punjabis’, referring to the Congress vice president’s remarks on Dalits at a rally on Tuesday.
In his letter to the PM, Parkash Singh Badal said not inviting the state’s Akali Dal government to the event was a violation of the federal system. “The callous attitude of the Centre and national leadership shows their myopic outlook and narrow mindset. It is a matter of courtesy,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will attend the inauguration of the 500-bed cancer hospital in Sangrur, 120 km from Chandigarh, to be run by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. The Congress claims that the state’s Chief Secretary was informed a week ago about the event.
The Chief Minister said cancer hospitals in Ferozepur and Sangrur had been conceived by the state government, which had given land for the projects. He accused the Centre of delaying the projects by putting up hurdles and jumping to take credit now. But the Congress-led UPA government did not have the courtesy to invite us to the function. The Congress leaders shouldn’t have stooped so low for this great public cause. Badal fumed. State Congress chief Partap Bajwa accused the Chief Minister of playing politics over the hospital and making excuses to stay away.
Bureau Report
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