Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for resorting to his characteristic ways of “political blackmail”. “It is so characteristic of Badal to rake up panthic issues for personal vested interests,” said Capt Amarinder while referring to Badal’s speech at the Northern Zonal Council in New Delhi recently.
Capt Amarinder maintained that for Badal, no Sikh is a true Sikh if he does not succumb to his (Badal’s) line. “If any Sikh is with the Congress or any other party like BJP, he is not a Sikh for Badal…He (Badal) had even termed Panth Rattan Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Jagdev Singh Talwandi as traitors,” he added.
The former Chief Minister said that this was the Badal’s last and desperate bid to rake up panthic issues to conceal his own failures as he had realised ground slipping beneath his feet. “Hazoor Sahib has an independent management body and they have every right to appoint their own people to the committee…Why should Badal have any objection, particularly when the Gurdwara management there is being run very efficientlyIJ” he said.
Similarly, the Haryana SGPC was being demanded by the Sikhs of Haryana. “It is Badal who is trying to interfere and deny them (the Haryana Sikhs) their right and not anybody else”, he asserted. He said: “Badal should better have raised the issue of farmers like his Haryana counterpart did and got heavy concessions and relaxations for procurement of wheat in that State. “But, Badal is never interested in anyone else other than his own self and hence is raising the imaginary issues like alienation,” he said.
“If anybody is alienated, it is the youth of Punjab who is jobless and does not see any ray of hope…And it is Badal who is responsible for this alienation and nobody else,” he added.Capt Amarinder said that Badal should be more concerned about the drug addiction that has ruined the entire generation. “So many young boys have been hooked to this scourge with free supply being facilitated by the Akali Government in the State,” he said.