Tearing into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the farmers’ protest, the Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday accused party’s former ally of being “the real tukde-tukde gang” and destroying the national unity by maliciously “pushing patriotic Punjab into communal flames” for political gain.
“BJP is the real ‘tukde-tukde’ gang in the country today. It has been splitting the country into pieces by setting one community against another. So desperate it is for power and has no scruples about taking the communal polarization route and setting the country on communal flames,” he said while talking to the mediapersons at Bathinda.
Sukhbir said: “The BJP first set the Hindus against the Muslims. Now, it is determined to replay that evil game and re-enact the same tragedy in Punjab also. It is conspiring to set our peace-loving Hindu brethren in Punjab against their Sikh brethren with whom they have shared strong bonds of blood for centuries. The BJP wants to replace those bonds of blood with bloodshed.”
Continuing to train guns at the BJP, he said that the saffron party has been resorting to dangerous conspiracies to sabotage the hard-earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony just for the realization of petty political goals. “BJP leadership must realize that their party today has become the most powerful divisive force. It has been resorting to dividing the country and its people by spreading hatred in the name of religion,” he said.
Referring to the ongoing farmers' movement, Sukhbir said that the whole country, except that BJP, gratefully acknowledges the debt which we owe to our patriotic farmers and soldiers.
“The BJP is provoking the people to deny that debt. It believes only in emotionally exploiting the farmers’ sacrifices but remains so ungrateful to them that it is painting them as anti-national,” he said.
“Today, it is the farmers. Nobody knows what the BJP might say even about soldiers tomorrow if it suits that party. The farmers are hurt and angry against the BJP and not against the Government,” he said.Later, in a statement issued from the party headquarters in Chandigarh, Sukhbir said: “SAD deems its national duty to caution the countrymen against BJP’s desperate and destructive game-plan in Punjab.”
“This party is desperate for power that it has no qualms about making Punjabis thirst for one another’s blood and destroy the fabric of unity and fraternal love which has been bequeathed to us by the great Guru Sahiban and by great saints and seers like Kabir Sahib, Baba Farid , Jaidev , Namdev and others,” he added.
Sukhbir said that it is shocking and unbelievable that a party, which claims to take pride in India’s heritage, is determined to destroy the foundations of that very heritage.
“This is the heritage that has shown the path of peace, communal harmony, and human brotherhood to the entire world. But the BJP is hell-bent upon playing havoc with this heritage and destroying the hard-earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony,” he added.