Free to take whatever action you wish: Preneet Kaur to Congress

Patiala MP Preneet Kaur hit back at the Congress for issuing her a show cause notice for alleged anti-party activities, saying they are free to take against her.

New Delhi :Patiala MP Preneet Kaur on Monday hit back at the Congress for issuing her a show cause notice for alleged anti-party activities, saying it is free to take whatever action it wants to take against her.

Kaur has been suspended by the party for alleged anti-party activities, after Punjab Congress chief and other leaders of the state complained against her. Attacking the Congress Disciplinary Action Committee's Member Secretary Tariq Anwar, she said, "I am surprised to see that a person who left the Congress party in 1999 on the issue of Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi being a foreign national, and stayed out for 20 years till 2019, and had to face disciplinary action himself, is now questioning me on a so-called disciplinary matter."

Anwar had returned to the Congress in October 2018, 19 years after he had quit the party over the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi. In reply to the notice issued to her, Kaur said, "Congressmen in Punjab, who have made allegations against me, are those who have many issues pending against them. If you call my husband who was then chief minister he will give you details about their doings. He protected them because they were from his own party. However, I suppose you will not do this".

The former Minister of State for External Affairs, who is the wife of ousted chief minister Amarinder Singh, was issued a show cause notice by the party's disciplinary committee on why she should not be expelled from the party for her "anti-party activities". Kaur's husband Amarinder Singh is a now member of the BJP. The Patiala MP further said she will keep on working for her constituents.

"As per your show cause notice I have always stood by my constituents, constituency and my state Punjab and have taken up their issues regardless of which Government is in power," she said.

She clarified that every Minister of a Congress Government in any state has to meet his department's Union Government Minister, in this case the BJP Government, to get their state's issues resolved.

"This was done in the past by the Congress Government in Punjab and today I am sure that it is being done by the Congress government in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as well. I too shall always continue to meet the state and Union Government to resolve such issues, whether you like it or not," a defiant Kaur said. "As to action against me you are free to take whatever action you wish," she dared the Congress.

It is not the first time that Kaur has been served a show cause notice by the party. In November 2021, the Congress had issued her a show cause notice seeking an explanation for her alleged anti-party activities. Kaur had then said that she did not receive any such notice, but had only read about it in newspapers and on social media.

In the 2022 state assembly polls, Kaur even campaigned for her husband Amarinder Singh who contested the elections as an ally of the BJP. Kaur served as an MP in 1999, 2004 and 2009. She lost the Patiala Lok Sabha seat in 2014 but won it back in 2019. Kaur served as Minister of State for External Affairs from May 2009 to May 2014. PTI