Punjab’s former Finance Minister and People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) chief Manpreet Singh Badal on Tuesday said that the State Government’s decision to do away with annual NRI sammelans has betrayed the moral bankruptcy of the ruling Akali Dal leadership.
“This shows their bankruptcy to face global Punjabis in the wake of the utter failure to keep up any of the promises made during these earlier functions,” said Manpreet.
He said that it was for the first time in SAD’s history, a party which was set up to articulate collective consciousness of the Sikhs, that its leadership dare not participate in any public function in the American sub-continent, mainly USA and Canada and several European countries which have a large concentration of Punjabis.
Manpreet recalled that SAD president Sukhbir Badal had to cancel his Canadian tour last year following threats of protests by the Punjabis there. “Akali Dal is the party which used to have participation from the global Punjabis by way of representation in the general house of the party but the party had lost that character and hence this situation,” he said.
He added, “Moreover, the people at large are fed up with this Government and the NRIs, who have been active in their native state during every election, are no exception.”
Manpreet pointed that even previous year’s NRI sammelan did not witness much enthusiasm and the participation was much less. “This was because of the fact that the state government had miserably failed to keep up any of the promises made to them during earlier sammellans. Their problems are now too well known and it is futile to hold two Sangat Darshan programmes in Malwa and Doaba to know the same. Their problems needed long term solutions.