Indulging in a war of words, arch-rivals Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress spewed venom against each other on Friday.
Even as SAD targeted Congress State president Partap Singh Bajwa questioning his credentials, Congress leaders came to the rescue of their president. Taking a dig at the leadership crises being faced by Punjab Congress, SAD questioned Bajwa whether he was comfortable being called himself as State Congress president. “Facing revolt from various factions of his party, Bajwa is trying to counter SAD on non-issues to keep the dwindling flock of disgruntled leaders of his group together,” said SAD spokesperson Maheshinder Singh Grewal.
Grewal congratulated Bajwa for being PPCC president for more than a year despite the ‘rotational headship’ culture of Congress and advised him to quit the post gracefully as his party leaders were all set to dethrone him. Asking Bajwa on which ground he was asking Punjab Government to resign when his own block and panchayat-level leaders were not ready to listen him, he advised Bajwa not to follow the age old tactics of the Congress leaders to keep themselves in news as the Congress had already advanced on a path that would lead it from newspapers to history books.
The SAD leader said that Bajwa should not bother about the coalition and relations of SAD-BJP as it was not a political alliance but a natural alliance. Terming Bajwa’s statements as frustration of a desperate leader, Grewal said that it was too strange that a person who was accused of having relations with notorious drug lords and arms dealers was demanding action against the SAD.
He stressed that the SAD has glorious history and led freedom movement and struggle against emergency imposed by the Congress to curb democratic setup of the country whereas Bajwa’s name has become synonymous with criminals and corrupt deeds, be it bitumen scam, Gujarat racket or recent charges of grabbing village panchayats land near Chandigarh.
Responding, the State Congress asserted that the Akali Dal leaders had been rattled by its proposed campaign on January 5 seeking dismissal of “anti-national Parkash Singh Badal Government whose ministers had been playing with the future of the State by aiding and abetting drug smuggling and atleast two of them were under the lens of the Enforcement Directorate while one of them earlier resigned for the same reason”.
The Congress leaders, party vice-president Surinderpal Singh Sibia and the general secretary Rajanbir Singh, said: “A petty and disloyal person like you has no credentials to ask questions about the senior Congress leaders as you are the person who has betrayed the soul of the great leader like Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra. If you have any conscience which you have not, you should recall your own statements against Badal whom you used to describe as a thoroughly corrupt leader. From a Tohra loyalist to a Badal sycophant is really a great achievement for you.”
They also questioned Grewal about the demand being repeatedly made by the leaders of their alliance partner, the BJP, demanding resignation of Bikram Majithia and earlier of Avinash Chander. He should also educate the people as to why the BJP Chief Amit Shah proposed to launch anti-drug campaign from Amritsar, besides explaining the statement of Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal admitting that the synthetic drugs were being made in the State.