3 min readChandigarhOct 26, 2021 07:23 AM IST
First published on: Oct 26, 2021 at 07:23 AM IST
The row over Capt Amarinder Singh’s links with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam continued to simmer Monday with the former Punjab chief minister Amarinder releasing her pictures with various politicians, cutting across party lines, and actors on his Facebook page.
The move comes two before Amarinder, who was ousted as CM following a bitter infighting in Congress, is set to announce his own political party at an event in Delhi. Sharing Alam’s photos on his Facebook page, the former CM, who has not yet resigned from the Congress, asked if all the leaders and actors accompanying the Pakistani journalist had ISI’s links and asserted that he would have invited her again had there been no visa restrictions between the two countries.
Amarinder’s post seems to be a challenge to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa who earlier said that a probe would be carried out to ascertain if Alam has links with Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Amarinder shared Alam’s pictures with former Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha, and Ashwani Kumar, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, actor and politician Shatrughan Sinha, the Late Dilip Kumar, film director Mahesh Bhatt, and Lt General Jagjit Singh Aurora (retd) who was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Eastern Command during the third war with Pakistan in 1971 that ventually led to creation of Bangladesh.
“I am posting a series of pictures of Mrs Aroosa Alam with various dignitaries. I suppose they are all also contacts of the ISI. Those who say so should think before speaking,” said Amarinder on his Facebook page.
“Unfortunately, visas are banned at the moment between India and Pakistan. Otherwise, I would have invited her again. Incidentally I am going to be 80 in March and Mrs Alam 69 next year. Narrow mindedness seems to be the order of the day,” he further said. The state unit of Congress, meanwhile, continued to saw its fair share of action on social media.
Former state party chief Sunil Jakhar tweeted: “It wasn’t Czarina or her nationality! It was corrupt / scandalous Rasputin wielding influence through her which lead to an end of Czar Nicolas’ rule. Pray, beware of the Punjabi Rasputin(s), who seem not quiet done with ‘their liege’ yet, and are still digging deeper for him.”
While Jakhar did not name anyone, Mohd Mustafa, strategic advisor of PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, said that two “Rasputins of CAS” (short for Capt Amarinder Singh”, one of them Mustafa’s close relative and a minister grabbed an IAS officer’s plot in Ludhiana. The CM’s office, he said, “moved the earth and sky to help own tribe but failed to retrieve it”.
The move comes two before Amarinder, who was ousted as CM following a bitter infighting in Congress, is set to announce his own political party at an event in Delhi.(File Photo by Praveen Khanna) 
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