Congress-led Punjab Government will face its first litmus test on Monday, after sweeping the February Assembly polls. Coming days before the State Vidhan Sabha session, the ‘cornered’ SAD-BJP alliance would try to reclaim its lost ground by staging state-wide dharnas.
Making things worse for the Congress, the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) also announced to support the sit-ins in all districts of the State against the State Government.
SAD-BJP combine had already announced that SGPC members would also join the dharnas to be organised at all districts in the State on Monday against the Government on several issues, including farm debt waiver and alleged “impropriety” in sand mining contract.
Endorsing the same, the SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar on Sunday maintained that the Sikh body will become a part of the protests to be held by SAD-BJP combine.
Badungar strongly criticized the Capt Amarinder Singh government for deliberately adopting a negative attitude towards the Sikh issues, saying that the SGPC would not allow any such move of the government to succeed which would be against Sikh concerns.
“SGPC will not remain silent against Government’s attitude,” he declared while stating that the SGPC will participate in the statewide dharnas by the SAD-BJP combine on Monday.
“The SGPC members would join the protestors to raise their voice against various activities happening against the Sikh community,” he said adding that the gurudwara’s land was being forcefully occupied on Congressmen’s behest.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal and Punjab BJP chief Vijay Sampla would jointly lead the protest dharna in ludhiana organised “to get resolved the burning issues confronting the State and awake the deaf and dump Government about the problems of the people”.
The dharnas are to be attended by the party leaders and workers of both the parties, besides the SAD core committee members, MPs, MlAs, SGPC members, office bearers of the party and all district level leaders and members and elected representatives of the local bodies.
After the “peaceful” dharnas, leaders of both the parties will meet respective Deputy Commissioners to submit memorandums.
The combine would raise the issues of sand mining auction having alleged involvement of the state Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh and several ruling party MlAs, government’s apathy towards farmers’ problems and its betrayal on the issue of farm loan waiver, failure of the government to control incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and governing the State.
The alliance would also target the Government for alleged atrocities against the Dalits and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
Both the parties have issued instructions to the party workers to make these dharnas successful and a series of meetings were also being held in this regard.
Following the completion of the dharna programme, the combine has planned that its high-level delegation, including core committee members, MPs and MlAs, would meet Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore on June 13 to demand dismissal of Rana Gurjit from the Cabinet, besides an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax authorities in the sand mining contract.