The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday asked the new Congress Government in Punjab not to befool the people and purposely delay implementation of complete loan waiver to farmers as promised by the party in its election manifesto by taking the aid of masala and curry bonds.

In a statement here, party MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said, it appeared that the new Congress Government was simply trying to buy time to wriggle out of a solemn promise.

“The Government seems to have thrown up its hands and is now putting its faith in  schemes like masala bonds well knowing the esteem the Congress enjoys amongst the NRI community,” he said.

Chandumajra said it was ironical that Capt Amarinder Singh was putting his faith in NRIs. “This is the same person who threatened NRIs that they would not be able come to Punjab to even attend bhog ceremonies of their deceased relatives simply because they opposed the Congress party politically. This is the same person who dubbed Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan as well as all elected representatives of Punjabi origin in Canada as Khalistanis”.

The Akali leader said this was not all. The Congress Government also disrespected the Ontario resolution terming the 1984 mass murders of Sikhs as genocide and refused to distance itself from the perpetrators. “How can such a Govern-

ment expect support from Punjabi NRIs to participate in any interest free bond endeavour of the StateIJ” he asked.

Terming the entire exercise orchestrated by the Congress regime to showcase that it was moving to address the issue of loan waiver as a sham, Chandumajra asked the Government to explain the need of forming a committee which is slated to submit its report after two months.

“Didn’t you get forms filled from farmers  asking them to detail their debt before coming into power after careful deliberationIJ Wasn’t your election manifesto prepared by present Finance Minister Manpreet Badal over a period of six monthsIJ Didn’t former Prime Minister and renowned economist Dr Manmohan Singh release the manifesto after carefully vetting the loan waiver promiseIJ”, the MP asked.

Stating that this was not all, Chandumajra said Capt Amarinder had personally explained that the loan waiver visualised by him included waiver of both institutional loans of cooperative banks and national banks as well as non-institutional loans.