Akali Dal on Tuesday take on Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh for taking ex-servicemen for a ride by promising them around 15,000 posts in his proposed ‘Guardian of Governance (GOG)’ project to ensure stringent implementation of his welfare schemes.
SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said, “The much flaunted program is nothing but a ploy to garner ex-servicemen’s massive vote bank in Punjab and also to derive support of the serving officer.”
“If Amarinder is so sincerely concerned about ex-servicemen, he should have cared to recruit them in his party and lobbied for at least a couple or three-four seats in Punjab. But so far, none of the candidates announced by the Congress is ex-servicemen. And surely, none would be allotted party nomination in remaining 40 odd seats where the party is yet to announce candidates,” he said.
In fact, Amarinder himself is an ex-serviceman albeit his stint remained in service remained very short, he added.
Chandumajra questioned Capt Amarinder’s announcement asking how all the newly-created posts in the government can be reserved for ex-servicemen, calling it “the greatest hoax”.
Congress true colours revealed by Virbhadra says SAD
Maintaining that the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has revealed true colours of Congress party and its commitment by refusing to implement promise made to youth before polls, the ruling SAD on Tuesday asked Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh to clarify why he was making “fake” promises.
“Virbahdra Singh had claimed that the promise of an unemployment dole to the youth of Himachal was made by few people who had no experience of running a government. Now, it is up to Amarinder Singh to clarify if a similar promise made to the youth of Punjab was done at the instance of a poll manager like Prashant Kishore. If this was so, Amarinder must tell Punjabis why he is deliberately cheating them when he has no intention of honouring his fake promises,” said senior SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
“Punjab Congress party in-charge Asha Kumari should also come clean and reveal whether she was part of this conspiracy to betray and backstab Punjabis.
He pointed that Capt Amarinder had also, in the run up to 2007 assembly elections, “promised to retain free power facility and social welfare schemes initiated by Badal Sahab but reneged on this promise immediately after coming to power and stopped the same”.
One-and-half dozen Akali families join Congress in Mohali
Akali-BJP alliance suffered a jolt when around one and half dozen families of Mote Majra village in Mohali district left SAD to join Congress. The families, who expressed full faith in Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh’s policies, were inducted into party by Congress candidate from Mohali assembly seat Balbir Sidhu on Monday.
Sidhu said that not only Mohali but throughout the state, the people are joining Congress after getting attracted to its people friendly policies.
Amarinder against ‘ardas’: SAD
SAD secretary and Punjab Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema on Tuesday said that the state Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh has literally gone overboard and bizarre when he “misread and misinterpreted” the Supreme Court decision on abuse of religion by politicians.
“He went on to denigrate the Sikhs for offering ardas prayer within or outside Gurdwaras,” Cheema said.
lambasting him for such ludicrous statement to seek a blanket ban on such prayers, Cheema said that Amarinder has obliquely questioned not only Akali but all politicians who invariably go to seek the blessings of Almighty before venturing for any important mission in their life.
A day before, Capt Amarinder objected to Akalis holding ardas outside Gurudwaras with intent to influence people to cast their vote on the basis of their religion which, he said, was shameful for the Akali leaders.
Cheema said that perhaps, Capt Amarinder may approach the Election Commission of India to urge it to ban “ardas” by candidates after the code of conduct is imposed as is evident from his statement.
“Needless to mention, Amarinder would oppose akhand path too by candidates. Surely, Amarinder is attacking the Sikhism,” he said adding that this reflects on his anti-Sikh orientation under tutelage of Rahul Gandhi who is out and out anti-Sikh.
Cheema urged Amarinder to clarify whether he was himself against the practice of arads or he was simply echoing the sentiments of Rahul Gandhi.