Punjab Congress on Monday said that due to friction in relationship of Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, the State’s interests are suffering and is getting ill-treatment from the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre.
Senior Congress leaders, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Kushal Deep Singh Kiki Dhillion, in a joint statement, said that Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s accusation that the central government has reduced states to the status of “mere beggars” is clear indictment of Narendra Modi government that NDA is working against federal structure.
Punjab Congress vice-president Randhawa has asked the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to come clean on the issue of giving Rs 1,000 crore to the Centre for settlement of cash credit limits.
“You (Badal) had promised truck load of grants from Delhi, but its working otherwise. Instead of getting grants, state is paying to the Centre…Badal must clear that if there was no scam in purchase of foodgrains, why he had paid Rs 1000 crore to the Centre”, he said.
While the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had always fulfilled Badal’s every demand and always met Badal whenever he requested for appointment, “on the contrary, Modi is not giving even appointment to Badal”, said Congress leaders.
They said that despite getting huge grants from Manmohan Singh, Badal always targeted and accused him to give step motherly treatment to Punjab.
Reacting to maltreatment meted to Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Punjab BJP president Vijay Sampla at Hargobindpur Sahib function, Congress leaders said that Badal paid back with same coin to BJP leadership what he (Badal) gets from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They said that due to friction between SAD and BJP, the interests of the State are badly suffering. “If the SAD leadership has some morality left, they must come out of power from the NDA, otherwise they must stop blaming Modi and justify that latter is pro-Punjab by giving details that he has given more grants than former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” they added.