What was crafted as a strategically thought-out coordinated attack on former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh over his relationship with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam may not have proceeded as planned with Captain deciding to fight back than ignore the barbs.
Ever since Amarinder openly announced that he was not averse to the idea of aligning with the BJP if it managed to resolve the farmers’ issue, the Congress has gone on an offence to pin him down. What gave a cue to the party were the repeated statements by Amarinder that Punjab under PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu would not be safe and the ISI could try to disrupt peace.
Party insiders revealed that with Captain harping on the ISI designs, senior leadership had decided to drag in the issue of the Pakistani scribe and his friend for years, Aroosa Alam.
First, it was started by one of Sidhu’s aides, Mohammad Mustafa, who “reminded the CM about his relationship with a Pakistani”. Days later, deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa announced probe to “find” Aroosa’s links to ISI after PCC chief’s wife Navjot Kaur raised the issue of Aroosa’s interference in the state administration. “The strategy was simple. Since he was harping on ISI threat, we wanted to remind him that back home he was hosting a Pakistani whose antecedents were suspected,” confirmed a senior leader.
But the move seems to not have yielded the desired results. The personal attacks, according to party insiders, were aimed to put Amarinder under pressure. But the quick and fierce response from the former CM seems to have taken the party by surprise. “He had thus far chosen to stay silent on this aspect of his life. But the personal attacks seem to have given him the ammunition to fight back with,” said a leader close to Captain.
Amarinder has openly stood by his relationship with the Pakistani journalist. “Not only that he has released pictorial evidence to suggest that Aroosa enjoyed a good relationship with people from different strata, political spaces,” commented a leader.
On Monday, Amarinder took to Facebook to share photographs of Aroosa with prominent personalities even taking a dig at the Congress for “narrow mindedness”.
“Unfortunately, visas are banned at the moment between India and Pakistan. Otherwise, I would invite her again. Incidentally, I am going to be 80 in March and Mrs Alam 69 next year. Narrow mindedness seems to be order of the day,” Amarinder said in his post indicating enough that he did not intend to get cowed down by the personal barbs hurled at him by his former colleagues.
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