Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) rebel MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday announced 15-member Joint Action Committee (JAC) to finalise October 7 Kotkapura protest march, he announced after an all-party meeting held on previous Friday to discuss sacrilege and related firing incidents of 2015.
The first meeting of the 15-member JAC, comprising AAP’s suspended MP from Patiala Dr Dharamveer Gandhi, former Congressman and former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sbaha Bir Devinder Singh, Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains, BSP leader Lal Singh Sulhani, AAP MLA from Jaiton Baldev Singh, AAP’s Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu, AAP’s Maur MLA Jagdev Singh Kamalu, AAP’s Bhadaur MLA Pirmal Singh Khalsa, among others, would be held on September 29 at Faridkot.
Besides, representation was also from Insaaf Morcha Bargari by taking on board Sikh radical leader Gurdip Singh Bathinda and Jaskarn Singh Kahan Singh Wala. Former MLA and SGPC member Sukhdarshan Singh Marar, SGPC member and Sant Samaj leader Gurpreet Singh Randhawa, former SGPC member Makhan Singh Nangal, and Punjab Nambardar Union general secretary Harbans Singh were also members of the JAC.
Khaira, who has appointed himself as JAC’s member secretary, stated the September 29 meeting would finalise the programme and the preparations to be made for the Kotkapura protest march scheduled for October 7.
The decision to set up the JAC had been taken at the all party meeting held at Chandigarh on September 21, he said.
Khaira lambasted both the traditional parties — Congress and the Akali Dal — for announcing rallies at Lambi and Patiala respectively, with the nefarious intentions to torpedo October 7 protest march, seeking justice for the beadbi of Guru Grant Sahib and killing of two Sikh youth at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015.
“Both Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the Badals were hand-in-glove not only to deny justice on the vital issue of sacrilege and killing of two Sikh youth, but have now planned rallies to ensure that October 7 protest march does not succeed,” he said.
Khaira said that he failed to understand the wicked mindset of the Badals who have planned Patiala rally that amounts to literally opposing any justice to the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the killing of two Sikh youth at Behbal Kalan.
“It is a sad day for a glorious party like SAD which was primarily formed to safeguard the interests of panth, Sikhs and Punjab as per the ideology of Guru Granth Sahib, by taking a complete U-turn to oppose the justified demands of Sikh panth and Punjabis at large, the Badals are doing a great disservice to the ideology of their own party,” said Khaira adding that sometimes the tone and tenor of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal sounds exactly like hardcore RSS leaders, muzzling and opposing the rights of minorities in India.
Similarly, Khaira said that he was astounded to note that Capt Amarinder, instead of rendering justice and arresting the guilty police officers of Behbal Kalan police firing, has taken to rally culture.
Khaira said that the Governments are supposed to take concrete action instead of indulging in political gimmickry in shape of the Lambi rally on October 7.
“October 7 will be a litmus test of all right thinking Punjabis and the Sikhs, whether they should attend the Lambi and Patiala rallies which have been planned to divert attention of the masses and deny justice to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and killing of two Sikh youth at Behbal Kalan, or to attend the Kotkapura protest march that has been slated with the aim to seek justice to beadbi and the arrest of guilty politicians and police officers responsible for the broad daylight murder of two youth at Behbal Kalan,” he said.