Punjab Congress president and party’s nominee for Gurdaspur bye-election Sunil Jakhar on Sunday questioned the SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s continued silence on senior Akali leader Sucha Singh langah even two days after the latter was booked in a rape case, while deriding the BJP candidate Sarwan Salaria’s defence of the former minister. Even as he challenged Salaria to debate with him on any issue ranging from GST (Goods and Services Tax) to demonetisation, farmers, industry or unemployment, Jakhar described as shameful his opponent’s statement describing the rape case as an old one, saying that this did not absolve langah of the heinous crime. Jakhar, addressing a series of workers’ meetings in Batala, said that Sukhbir had not bothered to utter a single word on the issue though two days had passed since the police filed the case, after which langah had absconded.
Charging the Badals with destroying Punjab on all fronts, Jakhar came down heavily on former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for garnering votes in the name of the panth and the farmers and then failing to do anything on either count, as exposed by incidents such as Behbal Kalan (Fardikot) firing and farmer suicides.
Also coming down heavily on the Badals for tagging him an ‘outsider’, Jakhar said that he had been taking up issues of all areas of Punjab first as the leader of Opposition and now as Punjab Congress chief.
Promising to be the voice of every section of Punjab, particularly the poor and the oppressed, in the Parliament, Jakhar said that he was contesting the poll not to be an MP but to become a ‘sewak’ (servant) of the people.
Salaria as a ‘sarmaydaar’ (businessman), Jakhar said that a person, who did not understand the pain and anguish of the people, could not take up their issues with the Centre.“The ill-conceived and anti-people policies of the SAD-BJP government had led to the closure of 80 percent of the industry in Batala and sugarcane farmers had not got their dues for the past two years, forcing them to take the extreme step of suicide,” Jakhar pointed out, adding that the farmers could not celebrate Diwali in the past 10 years as they would be camping in mandis for release of paddy payment. However, with the Capt Amarinder Singh government at the helm, farmers can now celebrate the festival, he added.
Not only were the farmers getting prompt payments but wheat procurement had been done in a smooth manner and the produce was sold at double the prices since the Congress government took over, Jakhar said.
Jakhar, who also addressed an ex-servicemen rally at village Khokar, said only Captain Amarinder could protect their interests, and in fact the interests of all sections of the society.
Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made 72 promises to faujis, Jakhar said that none had been fulfilled. He appealed to the ex-servicemen to cast their vote for Congress to show what they thought about the BJP’s performance at the Centre.