A chastened Captain Amarinder Singh today took all criticism on the chin, sent clear signals that he wants to make a fresh start and appealed to the dissidents to take their grievances to him.At his first press conference after rebels marched to Delhi seeking his ouster, the Chief Minister admitted that his adviser B.I.S.Chahal and Principal Secretary Sanjit K. Sinha were removed because they were ‘‘largely perceived as impediments’’.With Chahal’s bitter foe, Partap Singh Bajwa, sitting beside, Amarinder announced his virtual removal from the high-profile post of adviser, saying Chahal will not return to ‘‘that particular job’’ after his three-month leave. ‘‘He will be assigned some appropriate task,’’ the Chief Minister said.He played down differences with Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and her supporters too. ‘‘I don’t know (what went wrong). May be I should have gauged their feelings. I should have tried to understand them. Maybe feedback channels were blocked.’’Announcing the ‘‘beginning of an exercise for self-introspection’’, Amarinder said, ‘‘(I) will take corrective steps to see that these sort of differences and feelings do not arise now . I want to appeal through you to all my colleagues to participate in fulfilling our objectives.’’While the chief minister talked about panchayati raj, financial revival and 24-hour power supply for villages as well, his climbdown on Chahal and Sinha were seen as feelers to the rebels. Bajwa cut in as Amarinder spoke on the dismissals. ‘‘We had indeed given him nek rai (wise advice) to bid both goodbye. We are grateful that he has done that.’’ The CM said this was a widespread feeling, so he ‘‘had to remove the impediments’’.‘‘My party comes first . not individuals,’’ he said, adding if Bhattal felt anyone else was an impediment, she should tell him. ‘‘Main badal doonga (I will change him too).’’ He said the two officials, his friends for years, had overstepped their limits and even leading to adverse media opinion on the 21-month old government.He ruled out AICC observers visiting Punjab, repeated ad nauseum that the final solution to the political crisis would be given by party president Sonia Gandhi. On the possibility of a winter session of the Assembly he said: ‘‘If necessary, we’ll do that. truth is right, now our mind is elsewhere. You know that too well.’’
