Captain Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab, titular Maharaja of Patiala and President of the All India Jat Mahasabha, has been hand-picked by the Congress to fight elections from Amritsar. The contest is against Arun Jaitley, who is positioned to become a powerful Cabinet Minister and the BJP’s man from Punjab in Parliament if the NDA forms the government. The seat is delicately balanced, owing to an anti-incumbency sentiment against the Akalis in Punjab, coupled with frustration over corruption charges and policy paralysis by the Congress-led UPA.

Amarinder Singh, who had an impressive victory in 2002, followed by the party losing in 2012, tells Shalini Singh in an interview on whether he can pull off a win.

The Congress lost the Assembly polls. But your election pitch for the Lok Sabha elections has been on local issues. Have you diverted attention from the anti-incumbency wave and citizens’ anger linked to big scams?

We didn’t lose the Punjab State elections for any other reason but the fact that seats were wrongly allocated. Rahul and Sonia Gandhi have acknowledged to the media that 29 seats were allocated wrongly.

The Congress has put its full strength behind the Punjab elections by placing Ambika Soni, Sunil Jakhar, Pratap Singh Bajwa and you as candidates. Will this combat the Modi campaign?

Narendra Modi doesn’t exist in Punjab, neither are national issues relevant here. The only wave here is a strong anti-incumbency against the BJP government.

All our opponents in Punjab are non-entities. I am contesting on Sonia Gandhi’s request, based on my political career of 47 years and performance, not as a counter to Modi.

Arun Jaitely challenged me to a debate on national affairs, but when I said he should include Amritsar and Punjab in the discussion, he shied away. He didn’t agree because he doesn't know much about Punjab.

The 2012 elections were fought under your leadership as the face of the Congress in Punjab, but the Party lost. What are your chances this time?

I am winning. I have been Chief Minister of Punjab for five years, PCC President twice, campaign committee-in-charge twice. Nobody knows Jaitely. He is an outsider from Naraina, Delhi.

He should be honest with people instead of claiming that he is a son of the soil. Modi’s impact on Punjab is zero because of large-scale corruption. The BJP’s election managers will demolish the BJP.

You have attacked the State government on the drug issue. But what has the Home Ministry, under the UPA, done to contain drug trafficking and illegal immigration?

There are three drug forces: the illegal drug trafficking across the golden triangle of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan; trafficking of home grown drugs; and the absence of a strong national policy on drugs. The BSF has been doing its duty by capturing smugglers on the India-Pakistan border and seizing heroin. But the problem within the State is acute.

After being caught by the CBI, drug kingpin Jagdish Singh Bhola has given a written statement to the Enforcement Directorate that Punjab Revenue Minister, Bikram Singh Majithia – who is also the brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal – and Punjab Jail Minister, Sarwan Singh Phillaur’s son Damanjit Singh Phillaur are hand-in glove with the drug cartel.

As a Chief Minister, what did you do about the drug menace in Punjab during your tenure?

I raised the drug issue in five Chief Minister conferences, including with former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Many drug peddlers were arrested in my tenure, but because of weak laws, they keep getting out on bail. Laws have to be strengthened.

You have accused your political opponent Arun Jaitley of being arrogant and an outsider. But you are said to be equally inaccessible being a royal. It seems you didn't even meet your own ministers when you were the CM. Is this true?

If I am arrogant, then Jaitley is highly arrogant, self-centred and a complete egoist. If these charges were accurate, how did I win from Patiala every time I contested?

When I was Chief Minister, I would take an Intelligence briefing every morning at 8 am.

From 8-11 am, I would meet my ministers and senior colleagues and from 11 to 5 pm, I would be in my office.

You left the Congress in 1984 to protest Operation Bluestar, but now, in the middle of the elections, you have given a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler. Isn’t this political harakiri?

I have not given a clean chit to anybody. This is Jaitely’s misinformation campaign at work. The matter is being investigated by the CBI and the courts will decide and give clean chits based on evidence, not me. When my brothers and I went to the camps and asked the riot victims to name the instigators, we were given the names of 47 RSS workers and five Congress leaders, but Tytler was not one of them. He was only implicated by Madan Lal Khurana in 1999 when he stood against Tyler in Delhi.

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