Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday appealed to the people across Punjab not to harm common Akali workers and jathedars since they had no role in the current crisis for which only the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was wholly and solely responsible.
“Hold back your anger and vent it at the time of elections, which are not very far, by voting and throwing Badals out,” he urged the people while expressing grave concern over the increasing attacks on Akali workers and leaders across the State.
“let you not vent your anger against Badals, on the common Akali workers and ordinary jathedars who are feeling as much aggrieved and victimised as any other Punjabi and want us to get Punjab rid of Badals,” he urged the people.
Capt Amarinder condemned the Chief Minister Badal for abandoning all the Akali workers and leaving them at the mercy of the angry mobs. “I have been receiving so many distress calls from Akali workers, jathedars and sarpanchs from across the state as they fear for their lives with nobody there to listen to and protect them,” he said while expressing his sympathies for these people and urging for calm and restraint.
The former Chief Minister said that Mr Badal has kept and vested entire power with himself, the common Akali workers and jathedars were as helpless as anybody else. “The ordinary Akali workers and jathedars are like you and me, and they have no role in what is happening in Punjab today,” he told the protestors, adding that rather they are feeling as much hurt and angry as anybody else.
Making an impassioned appeal for peace and restraint, the senior Congress leader pointed out that it was Badal who alone had taken de-facto control of the SGPC and Akal Takht and allowed hardly any freedom to people managing these great institutions.
“When SGPC chief and Akal Takhat jathedar have been rendered powerless and helpless by Badal, we can well imagine the plight of the common Akali workers and jathedars,” he pointed out, adding, “it is wrong to hold them responsible and make them pay for the sins committed by Badal”.