In a complete reversal of fortunes, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in opposition is alleging what the Congress party was claiming a few months back when it was in the opposition.
Alleging that the Congress party has unleashed political vendetta against the SAD-BJP workers across the State with the help of police machinery, the SAD has decided to provide legal aid not only to its workers, but also that of its ally, BJP, to contest the false cases.
Akali Dal’s political affairs committee (PAC) has, in fact, decided to raise its voice against the “excesses” by Congressmen during its meeting on Wednesday.
Notably, the Congress party, during its previous two tenures in the opposition, had been making the same allegations against the then ruling SAD-BJP combine. The party had even set up a toll free helpline for the “victims” of political vendetta, besides providing legal help.
Now, SAD president and former deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal declared that the party would provide legal aid to the SAD and BJP workers who were falsely implicated in fabricated cases by the Congress.
Sukhbir, while talking with the media after presiding over SAD’s PAC meeting, said that from July 25, he would be visiting all 117 constituencies and meet all the party workers, who were allegedly implicated in false cases.
legal aid would be provided to the workers at the district and the state level,” he announced.
Describing as ‘jabar virodhi lehar’, Sukhbir said that the party started a campaign from Dera Baba Nanak on July 25 to raise a voice against the Congress excesses against the SAD-BJP workers. As its part, Sukhbir would be visiting the families affected by the Congress excesses across the State.
“SAD will start a mass movement to force the Congress Government to stop its workers from targeting Akalis. We will form committees in all districts to help victims. We are also evolving a system to contest all false cases registered against our workers besides conducting an exercise to evaluate the extent of the false cases,” said Sukhbir.
Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also announced that he would personally meet Akali workers to listen to their grievances twice a month for two days each in the party headquarters at Chandigarh. The first such set of meetings will take place on August 1 and 2 and on August 16 and 17.
No question to construct SYl
Maintaining that earlier also Punjab’s river waters had been taken away from the State during the Congress rule, Badal said that the same would not be allowed under any circumstances. “We would like to make it clear to everyone that Punjab does not have any excess water and there is no question of construction of the SYl canal. This will not be allowed under any circumstances,” he said. SAD’s PAC, in its meeting, passed a resolution warning Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh not to agree to any negotiation with Haryana which would take away even one drop of water from Punjab.
Rejects Commission
SAD’s PAC, rejecting the setting up of two commissions under former high court judges, also passed a resolution saying that no justice could be expected from the former judges who had always acted as Congress agents. “Justice Ranjit Singh was not only the brother-in-law of Congress legislator Harpartap Ajnala, but was also known to show bias against the SAD as a serving judge...Justice Mehtab Singh’s closeness to Capt Amarinder Singh could be seen from the fact that he had handed over his house for stay to the Congress leader during the Moga by-election,” read the resolution.
GST on langar
SAD’s delegation, comprising of MPs and senior leaders under the leadership of party chief Sukhbir Badal, would meet the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to request him to exempt the langar purchases by the SGPC and other institutions, along with all agricultural inputs and machinery from the Goods and Services Tax (GST).