Attack turns nastier in Punjab poll battle; Isn’t it time to set limits?
Arvind Kejriwal goes nasty in his bid to defame Charanjit Channi as the Punjab poll scene boils
It’s the election season, and sparks are bound to fly whenever leaders speak. The problem is that many of them resort to personal attacks and nasty comments. Though these verbal attacks give politicians much mileage in terms of publicity, the question is whether such irresponsible behaviour should be entertained.
Take a look at what AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has unleashed on Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. The attack, aimed at earning some brownie points in the poll scenario in Punjab, comes as extremely nasty.
Channi is an angry man, with Kejriwal posting his picture that has the Punjab Congress leader and Chief Minister with currency notes. The picture was posted on social media with the caption that the currency notes were recovered from Channi.
Channi irked by Kejriwal attack
This happened after the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids on multiple locations in Punjab, including those linked to a relative of Channi, on January 18. The raids, which was part of a money laundering investigation against the ‘sand mafia’ had recovered around Rs 10 crore.
Eyeing some applause, Kejriwal went a step further and posted a picture of Channi with the currency notes. The intention was to malign his Punjab counterpart ahead of the elections. This however, hasn’t gone down well with Channi, who is preparing to take Kejriwal to court for defamation.
Channi has made his decision known to the media saying that Kejriwal has crossed all limits of decency when he posted his picture along with the currency notes which were not recovered from him. Channi has lashed out at Kejriwal saying that the AAP leader is known for such mischief and had done such things before too.
Kejriwal too knows that the money was not recovered from Channi but his relatives, and yet he has done this nasty work of posting the picture on social media. Channi has also clarified that he had erred in keeping an eye on his relatives’ activities and that it he wasn’t in any way responsible for the wrongdoings by people other than his family.
Nasty behaviour needs no encouragement
The Punjab poll scenario is all heated up with the Congress, AAP and the BJP doing all they can, so as to score some major wins. With Kejriwal’s act of doing nasty stuff it remains to be seen how it would impact the Congress or how it would backfire on AAP.
Arvind Kejriwal’s earlier act of levelling allegations against others during election campaigns has been pointed out by Charanjit Singh Channi following the latest episode, and he pointed to the AAP leader apologising to Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley and Bikram Majithia on earlier occasions after having proved wrong.
Meanwhile, responding to Channi’s charges the Aam Aadmi Party has said that after being exposed by the ED raids, Channi is seeking to garner the sympathy of the people by trying to showcase himself as a poor and Dalit amidst the Punjab poll battle.
The question is whether such nasty allegations without proof need to be encouraged. Though everyone would agree that personal attacks do happen when the election nears, such attacks need to be within limits. It is high time that politicians understood that electoral battles can be fought on gentlemanly terms too.
