Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday announced Rs 50 lakhs for the upkeep and maintenance of the memorial of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan — his ancestral village.
The Chief Minister paid floral tributes to the great martyr on his 113th birth anniversary at the martyr’s ancestral village, where he later staged a brief dharna to kickstart a campaign against the Centre over the introduction of the farmers’ legislations.
He was joined by AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar and Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, besides the Cabinet Ministers, around 45 MLAs and six MPs, and other party leaders.
However, former Minister and Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu was conspicuous by his absence, besides the Sri Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari.
They all sat in the memorial complex right in front of the statue and sat on dharna for over an hour.
Remembering the courage of Bhagat Singh and other martyrs during the Indian freedom struggle, the Chief Minister exhorted the youth to emulate the high ideals of these revolutionaries.
CM’S NAUTANKI DISRESPECT TO SHAHEED-E-AZAM: SUKHBIR
Describing Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s dharna at Khatkar Kalaan as “shameful political nautanki at a very solemn place”, SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Monday said: “If, at all, he had to go there, he should have done so after issuing an Ordinance declaring the Punjab state an agricultural market to render the Centre’s Bill invalid in Punjab, and withdrawing his own APMC implemented in Punjab 2017 with the same provisions which the Centre’s new Acts contain.”
SAD chief also recalled how some people had launched a party called the PPP, swearing by the soil of Khatkar Kalaan, just a few years ago. “Where is the founder of that party now? Where is that party? And where is that oath? The people who disrespected Shaheed-e-Azam by swearing on oath by his name have now joined the Congress, a party Shaheed-e-Azam opposed,” said Sukhbir.
SAD TO SUPPORT GOVT AGAINST CENTRE IF IT MOVES SC: CHANDUMAJRA
A senior Akali leader Prem Singh Chandumjra on Monday maintained that the Akali Dal would support the Congress-led Punjab Government against the BJP-led Central Government if it would move the Supreme Court on the issue of farm bills.
Chandumajra, who also visited the memorial of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan, said that in case the Government would knock the Supreme Court, his party would support the state against the Centre. At the same time, he also sought the Chief Minister’s intervention to make the entire campaign against the farm bills an “all-party event”.