LUDHIANA:Taking a dig at the Akali-BJP leaders who staged a demonstration in front of his house here today against the extension of special industrial package to hill states, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari advised them to better protest in front of the residence of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal who was the Union Minister of State for Industries in the Vajpayee government when this package was originally announced.

In a statement issued here today, Tewari said, rather the Congress led UPA government at the centre tried to rationalise the incentives by curtailing the scheme in 2007, withdrawing the incentive on central excise to these states in 2010 and the incentive on income tax in 2012. The Ludhiana MP said, he or the UPA government at the centre did not need a certificate from the Akali-BJP leaders for the contribution and help provided to theLudhianaindustry in terms of excise and other relief and other incentives. “Everybody inLudhianaknows our contribution towards helping the industry in various ways and I really don’t need any certificate for that, more so from the Akalis or the BJP who have pushed the industry to the brink”, he remarked.

At the same time, the minister added, he understood the frustration of the Akali-BJP leadership inPunjabfor their continuous and consistent failure with unfailing regularity to retrieve the economy. “Since they do not have the moral courage to admit to their failures and accept that there is a policy paralysis in Punjab that has led to this state of affairs when Punjab is at the brink of bankruptcy, they have to blame someone else and hence decided to stage demonstration against me”, he remarked.

Emphasising that it is the failure of thePunjabgovernment that has led to the industrial decline in the state, the Ludhiana MP pointed out, there are several other states which have done well without any incentives. “If industry is shutting down inPunjabit is not because of the incentives to others but only because the failure of the state government”, he asserted, while pointing out, “our industry is not moving to the hill states, but other states which do not have any incentives”.

Advising the Akali-BJP leaders to better introspect than resort to cheap political posturing for lack of any real issues against him and the Congress, Tewari said, “as long as they (Akali-BJP) are not prepared to accept their own failures and continue to blame it on others, they will never be able to address the serious issues the state was facing”.

“You may be able to deflect the attention from your own problems for a while, but this is not going to solve them”, he told the Akali-BJP alliance while warning them, “the way you are going, the day may not be far when Punjab would be declared bankrupt and you will have to run for cover”. Moreover, he added, people ofPunjabare too wise to be fooled by such gimmicks aimed at deflecting the attention from their own problems.