SAD patriarch and Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday lambasted the Congress party for stooping too low to seize control of the SGPC and other Sikh institutions as it was trying to create division among the Sikhs by colluding with anti-Sikh forces to achieve the “heinous goal”.
Badal, addressing a gathering on the eve of Maghi Mela, said that during 80 years of his long political stint, he learnt that Congress party was the biggest of enemy of Punjab as well as Sikhs.
“You can see the difference by comparing it with the Modi government. On one hand, the Congress party is trying to grab control of our gurdhams by instigating the Sikhs against each other, and on the other hand, the Modi Government is fulfilling a long pending desire of every Sikh to have hassle free access to the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara,” he said.
Appreciating the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking two “historical and unprecedented” steps for the Sikhs, Badal said that Khalsa panth would forever be indebted to Modi sahib who took decision to made the Kartarpur corridor a reality and delivered justice to victims of 1984 Sikh genocide by setting up SIT to reopen the cases of Sikh massacre closed by the successive Congress governments.
“We never forget the people who had ever sympathized with our community by their noble acts. Modi ji has won our hearts with his noble gestures and we want to see him as PM for the second term,” he said.
Stating that the Congress “exploited religious sentiments”, Badal said that it was involved in “shielding riots perpetrators and is now rewarding those people with the post of Chief Minister who were involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide”.
Making an attempt to reach out to the farmers, Badal attacked the Congress Government saying that it has betrayed the state’s farming community, while listing out the achievements of SAD-BJP combine government in their 10-year tenure.
“SAD-BJP worked for the people of Punjab, but all the development works started during our tenure has been stopped. All the welfare schemes, like Atta Dal scheme, old-age pension, and Shagun started by SAD, have come to a grinding halt. Presently, the Congress Government is an anti-people government,” he said.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal maintained that some anti-Sikh forces were trying hard to defame Akali Dal and its senior leadership in their desperate attempt to gain control over the Sikh institutions including the SGPC.
“They are misleading the Sikhs by making baseless and false claims about the functioning of the SGPC. The SGPC affairs are run by representatives of the Sikh community not by the Badal family as they put it to misguide the Sikhs,” he said.
Dubbing the “so-called panthic forces” as Congress’ B-team, Sukhbir said that they held dharna and lifted it, blocked cavalcades of SAD leaders, issued false statements against the Badal family as they were directed to do by the Congress party.