Himanta Sarma ‘thanks’ Punjab CM for Amritpal Singh crackdown, takes dig at Arvind Kejriwal

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has lauded his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann for the action against fugitive pro-Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh and his outfit ‘Waris Punjab De’. He, however, reiterated that Delhi is more like a “municipal corporation”, Arvind Kejriwal is its chief minister.

“I want to thank the chief minister of Punjab for taking the right action (against pro-Khalistanis) at the right time. I don’t have any political issues in this matter,” Sarma said in an interview to TV9 Bharatvarsh.

When asked about giving credit to Kejriwal for the Punjab action, Sarma said, “Kejriwal ji is the chief minister of only one municipality. When will be a comparison between the Guwahati municipality and Delhi, I will talk about Kejriwal. But Bhagwant Mann ji is the chief minister of a big state, he has taken good action against Khalistan.”

When asked if he wanted to give any advice to Mann, Sarma said, “In fact, right now, I want to take advice from Mann ji on how he has successfully conducted the operation (against Amritpal Singh and his outfit)… If someone is going good work, he should be appreciated. The crackdown was important for the country,” the Assam chief minister said.

Kejriwal and Mann earlier this month addressed a large gathering of party workers from across the state during his one-day visit to Guwahati.

“You may have become Assam’s chief minister, but you haven’t learnt Assam’s culture,” said the Delhi chief minister while launching an attack on Sarma during his first visit to the state. Sarma hit back at Kejriwal at a press conference later at night and accused him of being a “coward”.