Strongly condemning the Narendra Modi-led Central Government for “erasing” the legacy of the war of independence ‘Jallianwala Bagh’ in the name of renovation, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday termed it as “tampering with Punjab’s history”.
AAP also demanded from Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to form an all party committee of the MLAs on the Jallianwala Bagh controversy to complete the inquiry within a month and submit the report to the Assembly. AAP’s senior leader and MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan demanded from the Punjab Government to conduct a high level inquiry into the work and Rs 20 crore expenditure of a private Gujarat company renovating Jallianwala Bagh and the responsibility of investigation should be given to the committee members constituted by the assembly.
“The Jallianwala Bagh has been renovated by the Central Government which has been accused by the residents of Amritsar and the historians of tarnishing its historic appearance...If this has happened, then it is not only negligence but also a conspiracy to erase the history; especially Punjab’s history,” said Sandhwan.
He alleged that the BJP was moving towards changing the country’s history. “So far, countless historical sites and heritages in the country have been changed. Under this, the historical appearance of Jallianwala Bagh has also been erased,” he added.
Sandhwan further said that Punjabi language was being disrespected by putting Hindi at the top of the billboards at various places in Jallianwala Bagh; which would not be tolerated at any cost. All languages are respected, but the Punjabi language should be given due respect in Punjab, he asserted.
Agreeing with the tweet of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Jallianwala Bagh, Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that our history and historical places should not be tampered with; but Capt Amarinder has belittled his own leader by saying, “I don't know what has been removed. To me it looks very nice.”