Chandigarh October 23:
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal strongly denied the allegations levelled by his estranged nephew and former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal that his calls were being tapped and his house bugged for over three years.
''This is totally baseless. No one can be so mean,'' Mr Badal said while talking to a select group of mediapersons at his residence here. Mr Manpreet Singh Badal was expelled from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wedenesday and sacked from the state Cabinet last week in the wake of his controversial statements questioning the fiscal prudence of the SAD-BJP government in the state and its reluctance to accept a Central debt waiver offer of Rs 35,000 crore to the state.
The Chief Minister once again reiterated that there was no concrete proposal from the Centre on such a debt waiver. ''Everything is in the air.'' Mr Manpreet Badal had also launched a frontal attack on his cousin and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal yesterday for capturing the cable network in the state and manipulating the electronic media for vested interests.
Asked if there were simmering differences in the family for long which resulted in the final parting of ways now, Mr Parkash Singh Badal said, ''It was a sudden development. I fail to understand why it happened. May be, it was destined to happen.''
