Take whatever action you wish: Preneet Kaur on Congress show cause notice

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 the Punjab Congress chief and other leaders of the state complained against her.

She has also hit out at the Congress party's disciplinary action committee member secretary Tariq Anwar, saying she was surprised to see that a person who had quit the Congress in 1999 over the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and had also faced disciplinary action himself, is now questioning her on a disciplinary matter.

Anwar returned to Congress in October 2018, 19 years after he quit the party over the issue of the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring lambasted Kaur for her “ingratitude and arrogance” towards the party and told her, “you will reap what you sow”. The Congress had suspended Kaur on February 3 and had also asked her to explain why she should not be expelled for anti-party activities. The Congress' disciplinary panel member secretary Anwar had said the action follows complaints against her from the party's Punjab unit chief Warring and other state leaders that she was allegedly helping the BJP in the state.

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.

Reacting to Kaur's reply to the show cause notice, Warring said, “Preneet Kaur ji, your reply to show cause notice oozes out ingratitude and arrogance towards party that made you and your family politically relevant, even ignoring their treacherous and deceitful traits.”

“Ethically and morally speaking, you should have resigned and faced your constituents, as the public voted for you as Congress candidate. As usual, you chose few years and favours over moral reasons, and backstabbed Punjab and Congress party by being in a sinister conspiracy to damage both,” Warring alleged in his tweet.

“But law of Karma is at play, you will reap what you sow,” said Warring.

It is not the first time that Kaur has been served a show cause notice by the party.

In November 2021, 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.

She served as Minister of State for External Affairs from May 2009 to May 2014.