Punjab Congress leaders on Sunday lashed out at the Badals, especially the SAD president Sukhbir Badal and his Union Minister wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, for politicising the auspicious occasion of Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations and misusing the Sikhs’ mini parliament, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak committee (SGPC).
A day after Sukhbir and Harsimrat visited the Dera Baba Nanak, three Punjab Cabinet Ministers came down heavily on the duo for misleading the people of the state, especially the Sikh community.
Corporation and Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said: “SAD is slowly but surely racing towards political oblivion as the Badal and Company maintaining their stranglehold on the party, are committing 'Political Harakiri' by dragging the 550th prakash purb celebrations into a controversy every now and then besides misusing the SGPC.”
Launching a scathing attack on the Badals, Randhawa said that the Badals ought to have understood the significance of this sacred occasion of prakash purb celebrations and cooperated with the State Government in putting up a united face for the sake of Punjab at least on this issue.
“But, by choosing to grind their own axe by using the SGPC as a pawn to further their narrow political ends, it has proved that the Badals are out to seek political mileage from the occasion as pious as the prakash purb celebrations thereby displaying the least bit of regard for the glorious traditions of the Sikh panth,” he said.
Reacting strongly to Harsimrat’s statement that no work of developmental nature has been undertaken in Dera Baba Nanak constituency, Randhawa elaborated that projects worth Rs 117 crore are currently undergoing in the area as a part of the consistent efforts of the State Government to ensure that the celebrations turn into memorable ones.
Various projects going on at present include beautification of the town, reforming sewerage system on the pattern of Sant Seechewal Model, upgrading hospitals by providing top notch healthcare facilities, strengthening road infrastructure, providing adequate parking space, installing LED lights in parks and solar lights in the streets, developing heritage street, constructing shopping malls, refurbishing district administrative complex, robust storm sewer system, improving the power distribution network, upgrading the bus stand and improving the lot of villages falling under the Dera Baba Nanak Development Authority, he said.
Daring Harsimrat to list even a single project or a visit to the constituency during the decade long “mis”-rule of her family, Randhawa said that despite her father-in-law being the Chief Minister, husband the Deputy Chief Minister, her brother a Cabinet Minister and herself being a Union Minister, “no project of the innovative and developmental nature could be initiated in the constituency”.
Advising Harsimrat Badal to first brush up her facts and then speak, the Congress leader said that if the Badals continue to put a spanner in the celebrations like this, the day is not far off when they would be a mere footnote in the history.
“The Badal family never visited the holy place of Dera Baba Nanak and never ever demanded the opening of Kartarpur Corridor and even went on to commit the extremely dastardly act of imprisoning Jathedar Kuldip Singh Wadala when the latter raised the demand in favour of opening Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor,” he asserted.
The state Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa also berated Sukhbir Badal for compulsively misleading people on the celebrations.
Rejecting Sukhbir’s contention that 350th anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated in Patna by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Bajwa said that the design of the Badal family was to get its legitimacy restored by dominating over the Guru Nanak anniversary celebrations.
“I had joined Guru Gobind Singh’s 350th anniversary celebrations at Patna and the function was organised under the command of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The function was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, besides Nitish Kumar and stage conducted by the then Punjabi University, Patiala, vice-chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh. The then SGPC president presented the ‘vote of thanks’,” he said.
Saying that the same facts were too well known to Sukhbir, who, accompanied by his wife, sat among the sangat, Bajwa said: “The compulsive liar that he is, Sukhbir is now purposely spreading the misinformation as the design of the Badal family is to seek rehabilitation after having been rejected by the people in the state and alienated due to Bargari sacrilege.”
Bajwa reminded SAD president that the tercentenary of the Khalsa in 1999 was celebrated by the Punjab Government while Gurta Gaddi Divas of Guru Granth Sahib at Nanded in 2007 was organised by the Maharashtra Government.
He alleged, it was the Badal family that was creating hurdles in the joint celebrations of 550th anniversary as the design was to lord over the celebrations. The SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal was in no position to resist the Badal family of which he was a puppet, he said.
“The celebrations should be organised jointly by the SGPC and the Punjab Government as proposed by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh towards which I have been making earnest efforts,” he said.
Joining in, the PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla said that Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has already accorded approval to the construction of ‘Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg’ from Sultanpur Lodhi to Dera Baba Nanak while reacting to Harsimrat’s statement regarding demanding the same from the Union Government.
“The Akali leader is habitual of making statements for narrow political gains without knowing the facts. It would be better if the Akali leader gets fully conversant with the facts and ground realities before speaking,” he said.
He added that the proposal to name Sultanpur Lodhi-Kapurthala-Kartarpur-Beas-Batala (including Batala Byepass)- Dera Baba Nanak Marg as ‘Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg’ was okayed in the Cabinet meeting held at Sultanpur Lodhi on September 10.
During the meeting, it was also decided to upgrade 136.14 km road at a cost of Rs 96.15 crore besides widening it by 10 metres.