Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday alleged that the Congress was “squarely responsible for the desecration of religious texts” in Punjab.
He alleged that the incidents of the desecration of religious texts were a “part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to defame” the then SAD-BJP government ahead of the 2017 assembly elections. “Subsequent events have provided categorical and convincing evidence of the Congress hand in the conspiracy. The version of the key witness Surjit Singh (in the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident at Faridkot) unnerved the Congress Government as they knew that this would lead the trail to their house,” he alleged.
“That is why they brazenly and shamelessly tried to destroy the evidence by putting pressure on the key witnesses to change his version, leading to his death under psychological stress,” he said.
Surjit Singh’s widow and Akalis have all along been naming Cabinet Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Coongress MLA Kushaldeep Singh Kiki Dhillon of mounting pressure on Surjit Singh for not deposing as a witness in this case to save some accused. Surjit had died of cardiac arrest on January 13, this year. “Congress clearly panicked and deputed its key leaders Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon to browbeat and force key eye-witnesses not to speak the truth and to change their earlier version...The statements made by the deceased’s wife Jasbir Kaur, have thoroughly exposed the Congress,” said Sukhbir.
“My simple question is why does the Congress government wanted to suppress the truth? Why is the CM not acting against Dhillon and Kangar? Why is the poor wife of the key witness being denied justice?” he asked.
SUKHBIR’S FIVE POSERS FOR CAPT
Attacking the Congress Government a day after it highlighted its achievements on the completion of three years in office, the SAD chief dubbed the party rule as the period of betrayal marked by the neglect of people.
Posing five questions to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Sukhbir dared him to name a single development or welfare scheme launched by Congress Government in three yearsm while also asking how many hours the Chief Minister attended his office, and how many times he visited Punjab’s areas. Sukhbir accused the Chief Minister of “cheating” farmers on debt waiver, betraying the youth in the name of jobs, cellphones and Rs 2,500 unemployment allowance every month.
“This is a period when the people of Punjab got nothing except betrayal, indifference and neglect at the hands of a power-drunk and arrogant ruler who humiliated Punjabis, treating even meeting people below his royal dignity,” alleged Sukhbir.
Attacking the Chief Minister for being “inaccessible”, SAD president asked how many times Capt Amarinder Singh toured the State and enquired about people’s problems. “In the past three years of the Congress rule, the state remained headless with no government visible either in the civil secretariat or in villages, towns and cities,” he said.
“How many times in these three years have you been to your office or to your state or how many times have you been even to the sacred Harmandar Sahib and Durgiana Temple to seek blessings of the Almighty,” Sukhbir asked the Chief Minister.
He said that the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh “lied shamelessly” in the name of the great ‘Guru Sahiban’, taking a “false oath” in the name of Guru Gobind Singh, “only to cheat farmers” on debt waiver and jobs to suicide-hit
families.
Stating that the Congress Government has “not fulfilled” any promise made to people, Badal said: “Forget implementing the Rs 90,000-crore farm loan waiver, the government has not even released one rupee to any farmer from the Rs 3,000 crore allocated for loan waiver in the last year’s budget.”
He alleged that during the Congress rule, all promises remained “unfulfilled” due to which people suffered.