A day after Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made it clear that investigations in the sacrilege cases will “go far”, his predecessor and Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday said that he was ready to face arrest by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing 2015 sacrilege and related firing cases.
“I have told the Punjab DGP that I am ready for arrest,” said Badal, the five-time Chief Minister, while talking with the media. “Capt Amarinder should stop this high drama enacted in the name of an inquiry into the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan incidents and instead tell me where I should come and offer myself for arrest, since this is the sole aim of the ongoing political witch-hunt,” he added.
Dubbing the developments in the Kotkapura firing cases as “political drama set up by the Congress-led Punjab Government”, Badal said: “I don’t want to waste time and resources of Punjab, so I have offered myself for arrest. Since they have decided to do so, I am here in Chandigarh for it. I will be happy if my last days are spent in Amarinder’s jail.”
Badal said that he stood up against political repression all his life, alleging that Capt Amarinder had earlier also booked them in false cases. “Even my wife was put behind bars. So, I am sure they are arresting us again,” he said.
“Even before any inquiry was instituted or started into these incidents, Capt Amarinder, PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar and their senior party and Cabinet colleagues had been pronouncing me guilty. Everyone knows how fair a probe can be after that,” said Badal.
Badal, who was unwell and had proceeded on leave from Vidhan Sabha session after informing the Speaker of his indisposition, reportedly rushed back from his village to Chandigarh on Thursday morning when he learn that the State Counsel had named him as guilty and that the Chief Minister had reiterated his “veiled threat” against him.
As per reports, Badal rang up the state DGP Dinkar Gupta on his arrival in Chandigarh, and told him that he was available in Chandigarh for arrest and could wait if they needed time. “Otherwise, I am available for arrest whenever, wherever you want me,” he told the media about his conversation with the state police chief.
“There is no point in targeting and playing havoc with and harassing the entire state administration. All this is being done only to create a political climate to justify the final goal of feeding their lust for vendetta and hatred for me, which can be satisfied only by putting me behind bars,” said Badal adding that the real motive behind all this truly was “to weaken the SAD and Sikh and institutions — something which they have been conspiring unsuccessfully to do ever since independence”.
Badal said that the Chief Minister and his senior political colleagues have abandoned even the need to pretend to respect the law of the land and have been openly declaring the outcome of the probe even before the SIT completes its investigations.
“It was the same thing with the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission probe in which the Chief Minister declared me guilty even before setting up the Commission. He has now gone to the extent of declaring on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha that his vendetta will reach the ‘highest level’. Everyone knows what he means by ‘the highest level’. So why waste the state’s time on hypocrisy? I offer myself for arrest so that the State’s energies are not put to destructive waste any longer,” said Badal.