Congress candidate from Gurdaspur, Sunil Jakhar on Monday attacked the Badals on the farm loan waiver issue, charging Parkash Singh Badal with cheating the people of Punjab by backtracking on his promise to waive off the loans if the Akalis formed the Government.
Waving a November 2006 newspaper clipping quoting Badal as saying that farm loans would be waived off if his party came to power, Jakhar told a workers’ meeting in Batala that despite being elected to the Government twice, the Akalis did not give a single penny to the farmers and now had the audacity to criticise the Captain Amarinder Singh Government for not giving enough.
If the Badals deemed Rs 2 lakh as insufficient they go and plead the case of Punjab farmers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Jakhar, pointing out that though the Akalis had left an empty treasury, Captain Amarinder had waived off the loans of 10.25 lakh farmers, of whom 8.25 lakh were those whose entire debt had been waived off.
Jakhar, who later also addressed worker meetings in Gunian and Sidhwan villages, also lashed out at the Akalis for implicating people in Gurdaspur in false cases, against which he had staged protest dharnas. He also expressed concern at the large number of incidents of sacrilege reported during the Badal rule.
Referring to an incident in which 37 people had died in Batala due to unfit drinking water, Jakhar recalled that not only had he staged a protest dharna in the area but had also taken up the issue in Assembly. He promised to take all problems of the people to the Parliament House once elected MP.
Jakhar promised the workers that he would fight for central grants for Gurdaspur while Capt Amarinder, who treated him (PPCC president) as his Rs laadla’, would give enough state funds for the region’s development.
At Batala, and earlier at Gurdaspur Election Ofice, Jakhar came down heavily on the BJP over its anti-people economic policies and efforts to divide the country on communal lines. He flayed the Centre for inflation, particularly the unreasonable hike in petrol prices, and the demonetisation which had led to the death of 200 people across the country.
Addressing a meeting of Christian workers at the Election Office, Gurdaspur, Jakhar exhorted them to cast their votes keeping in view the current situation, in which BJP rulers sitting in Delhi were dictating which religion to follow and what to eat or wear.