Describing protests by the NRIs abroad as an “orchestrated act by few politically motivated persons”, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday asked the Opposition not to misconstrue it as a ‘referendum’ against the State Government’s “pro-people” policies.
Badal’s reaction came almost a week after a delegation led by the State NRI Affairs Minister Tota Singh in New York was attacked by a group of protesting Sikhs.
“It is surprising that in the dearth of any issue against the State Government, the entire Opposition is ecstatic over the protest made by a few individuals abroad and are wrongly projecting it as mandate against the alliance government,” Badal said on the sidelines of his ‘Sangat Darshan’ programme in Jandiala Guru assembly segment.
He said that the protest was not in any way a verdict of the Punjabi diaspora against the state government as only a few people were a part of this protest.
The five-time Chief Minister cautioned the opposition that it should not nurture any doubt in their minds as the Punjabis were reposing full faith and confidence in the pro-people and development-oriented policies of the state government.
He said that such incidents had rarely taken place in the state where the SAD-BJP alliance government was in power for two consecutive terms and this reflects that people were satisfied with their functioning.
Badal said that the sole reason for it was that the alliance government had taken care of the interests of each and every section of the society during its rule.
“Ridiculing the state for the vested interests by opposition is highly deplorable as it is deliberately trying to paint dismal picture of Punjab for scoring brownie points before media by blowing this issue out of proportion as if the entire Canada or USA has turned against the state government whereas in reality, it is an orchestrated protest lodged by a few politically motivated individuals,” Badal said.
Tota Singh and his delegation came under attack in New York as hundreds of Sikhs protesting his visit allegedly threw stones and hurled a shoe at them.
The opposition Congress, had however, latched onto the incident to hit out at the state government saying that it was a “manifestation of the anger that NRI Punjabis particularly the Sikhs have against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his government” for their “hollow promises” and “failure on all fronts”.
Badal also said that the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh was habitual of misleading the people by levelling false allegations against him and his family. “The allegations of lok Sabha MP against me and the state government are baseless and far away from truth,” he said.
He said that Capt had been vociferously levelling such allegations ever since the formation of Congress government way back in 2002 but not even a single of them had been proved true. “As the Chief Minister of the state, Capt Amarinder had misused the entire government machinery against me and my family to prove these charges but all his allegations fell flat and we were acquitted by court,” he added.