While the political parties in Punjab attacked each other to garner eyeballs, Aam Aadmi Party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also trained his guns to add teeth to the stir. He urged people on Thursday to oust the Badals from power, saying the once-progressive State was on the verge of ruin.
“The Badals and their family have ruined a progressive state like Punjab in 10 years. In a state which was known to feed the country, farmers are now forced to commit suicide. Such is the state of affairs here,” said Kejriwal, sporting a yellow turban, at a gathering of Aam Aadmi Party supporters during the Maghi Mela here.
“In 10 years, the Badals and their family have looted Punjab. In 10 years, they have spread lawlessness (goondagardi), In 10 years, the Badals have spread drugs in the state. They have forced farmers to commit suicide. In 10 years, the Badals have sucked Punjab completely,” Kejriwal said in his aggressive speech against the ruling dispensation. “Today people have come here to take a pledge to oust the Badals. Even if people have to sacrifice their lives for this, they should be ready. Punjab is the land of sacrifices,” Kejriwal said. The Delhi chief minister urged people in Punjab to take the cue from voters in Delhi who had, last year, voted the AAP to power in a big way. The AAP won 67 of the 70 assembly seats, leaving just three to the BJP— Akali ally—and none to the Congress.
“People in Delhi have shown the way. I have spoken to many people in Punjab and I am confident the AAP will win 100 out of 117 seats in the state,” said Kejriwal, virtually launching the AAP’s election campaign.
“In Delhi, our government has stopped corruption. Eighty percent corruption has stopped in Delhi. My minister had demanded a Rs.6 lakh bribe. I sacked him immediately. If my son induldges in corruption, I will throw him out of the house too,” Kejriwal claimed. He accused the Akali and Congress leaders of being hand in glove. “The next assembly poll in Punjab is between two parties - AAP on one side and the Akali Dal, Congress and BJP together on the other side,” said a confident Kejriwal.
Kejriwal said that once his party comes to power, it will launch a commission of inquiry against the family to investigate their “misrule” in last ten years and send them behind bars. He said if AAP forms Government in Punjab, it will probe the sacrilege incidents in the State and take action against police officers for opening fire at protesting Sikhs at Behbal Kalan in which two persons were killed. The AAP’s national convener pointed out that though both the leaders lodged cases against each other when they were in power, it did not affect the two much.
“What happened to themIJ Cases are going on in courts,” he said adding, there was a secret understanding between both parties. Taking a swipe at Badal, he said, “How can I be scared of Badal when I was not scared of Badal’s ‘Taau’ - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sent CBI to raid meIJ It is Mulayam, Mayawati or Badal who can get scared of CBI. I am not.”