A day after SAD’s Bathinda MP and Union Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal urged the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into Rs 63 crore Scheduled Caste (SC) scholarship scam allegedly involving Punjab Cabinet Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday said that the Akali leader has no locus standi. “It is nothing more than the rantings of a frivolous politician who is in the habit of demanding a CBI probe into any and every case, thus further undermining the agency’s special status, which has already taken a beating under the BJP-led NDA Government,” he said.
Coming out strongly against the SAD leader, the Chief Minister said that instead of using her position as a Minister in the Union Cabinet to further Punjab’s interests, Harsimrat spent all her time bending backwards to please her political masters in the NDA alliance at the cost of the welfare of the people of the State.
“Not only did her demand for CBI investigation into the alleged scholarship scam expose her total lack of trust in the highly competent and professional police force and administration of the State, it is also against India’s legal and judicial principles, which empowered only the State Government to seek a CBI probe where it deemed necessary,” said Capt Amarinder.
The Chief Minister said that Harsimrat had no locus standi in the matter and was merely trying to mislead the people of Punjab with her political stunts and motivated statements.
Citing the CBI’s “poor track record” in handling major cases in Punjab, the Chief Minister pointed out that the central agency had failed to solve even a single of the four cases of targeted killings, including that of RSS leader Brigadier (Retd) Jagdish Kumar Gagneja, that were handed over to them by the Akali regime.
Capt Amarinder also lashed out at Harsimrat for letting down the Sikh community in the sacrilege cases, by first transferring the cases to the central agency and then manipulating it to file closure reports without even making a pretense of solving them. It is eventually left to the Punjab Police to solve these cases, and the force is doing an excellent job of it, with even some senior police officials taken into custody for their involvement, he pointed out.
“If Harsimrat is so keen to protect the interests of the people of Punjab, as she claims to be, why does she not leverage her position in the central government to put pressure on CBI to return the files to the Punjab Police for taking forward the investigation in the sacrilege cases,” he asked.
The Chief Minister asserted that Punjab Government was committed to a thorough and fair probe into the alleged scholarship scam, and bring those found guilty, irrespective of their position, to book.
The Chief Minister pointed out that even in the matter of the post-matric SC scholarship, neither Harsimrat nor her party tried to stop the Union Government from withdrawing the scheme, thus depriving lakhs of SC students the right to higher education.
Despite being a Union Minister, Harsimrat had never spared a thought for the people of Punjab, said Capt Amarinder, citing the Centre’s recent anti-farmer Ordinances, whose passage was actively supported by the Akalis, who did not even have the courage to attend the Assembly session to pass a resolution expressing the state’s angst against the same.
“The fact of the matter is that Harsimrat, and her SAD, are only concerned about promoting their political interests…From CAA to the agriculture ordinances, she and her party have exposed their double standards and lack of principles time and again,” he added.
