Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday asserted that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was trying to cover “across-the-board non-performance and brazen corruption” in his Government by launching the morcha against Sikhs in Haryana.
“launching morcha against Sikhs in Haryana is unprecedented and might trigger internecine war in the community,” said Bajwa.
lashing out at Badal for trying to exploit Sikh sentiments in Punjab, Bajwa said that he was diverting people’s attention from his Government that had totally failed to meet people’s aspirations who were up in anger as evident from the lok Sabha election.
“Yet at another level, aim is to mobilise support of Akali Dal which has been completely eroded and the same has been reflected in humiliating defeat of the now Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Amritsar,” he said.
Blaming Badal for “always using Sikh politics” to further interests of his own and that of his family through such
agitations, he said that it was apparent that he was making way for his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, who has become unpopular with the people, to take over in place. He must ensure that during the agitation, “no member of the Badal family would accept any position of power”.
“However, before launching the agitation, Badal must clarify the basic issue as to why is he out to scuttle aspirations of Sikhs in Haryana to manage their own shrines. Sikh leaders of Haryana spearheading this movement have been taking up this issue with religio-political authorities concerned in Punjab. Punjab leadership ignored their pleas and now the situation has reached a flash point,” he said.
Bajwa expressed apprehension that in case Akali Dal launched this agitation, situation might flare up. “At the national level, this situation might be exploited by Narendra Modi Government to administer bitter pill to the people as he and his ministers have been saying rather than fulfilling the poll promises of the BJP,” said Bajwa.