Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday made an appeal to all Akali leaders, who had parted ways with the parent party on one pretext or another, to return to the party fold.
“Our State is under attack from the Congress and AAP (Aam Aadmi Party), both of which are jointly responsible for our present plight. We must defeat their unholy alliance to ensure Punjab wins,” said Sukhbir while addressing a political conference at the historic Maghi Mela on Sunday.
Sukhbir added that only a regional party like the SAD, whose sole purpose was to protect the welfare of Punjabis and fight to secure their rights, could take the State forward. “This will be a true homage to Parkash Singh Badal,” he added.
The assertions came after the SAD chief made an appeal to the Punjabis to extend their wholehearted support to the ‘Punjab Bachao Yatra’, starting from February 1, to save the future of the State and its people.
“We have to save Punjab from the Aam Aadmi Party as well as its Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who has bankrupted the State and destroyed its economy besides failing on all fronts by betraying each and every section of society,” he said.
He also appealed to Punjabis to shun the AAP-Congress alliance, being formed to contest the next parliamentary elections jointly. “Both these parties have looted you and the State and now they propose to loot your vote by arriving at an unholy alliance which is detrimental to the interests of the State,” he said.
Sukhbir also urged the Punjabis to recognize the true character of both the Congress and AAP. “The Congress had attacked Sri Darbar Sahib with tanks and mortars in 1984 besides sponsoring the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and across the country. Similarly, the AAP Government had attacked Gurdwara Akal Bunga Sahib in Sultanpur Lodhi and fired on the peaceful sangat. Both parties are anti-Punjab and had teamed up to weaken the SAD as they knew that SAD alone stood in their way to achieving their nefarious goals,” he added.
Leading a frontal attack on the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Sukhbir said: “How can you trust a Chief Minister who was deboarded from a plane in Frankfurt because he was in a drunken state.”
“Bhagwant Mann had failed as home minister as he had failed to stop his legislators from taking monthlies from drug smugglers who were even preventing the police from acting against drug kingpins,” said Sukhbir, while also citing how the State industry was migrating to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh because the Chief Minister had failed to maintain law and order in the State.
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami urged the Sikh community to recognize the traitors in their midst who were trying to prevent forging of unity in the panth. “Such forces had been unsettled by Sukhbir’s clear-hearted apology at Sri Akal Takht Sahib,” he said, while making an appeal to the sangat to register their votes for the forthcoming SGPC elections to strengthen the Panth.