SAD on Thursday stated that Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has belatedly admitted that Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) was at the back of unfortunate incidents in Punjab in recent times, thus endorsing what former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had stated three years ago.
“Capt Amarinder has abused the august assembly to defame the Akali leadership over Justice Ranjit Singh report, and suddenly, it has dawned on him now that the sacrilege incidents were handiwork of the ISI,” said SAD’s former minister Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal.
He said, besides, Capt Amarinder has volunteered specific information that the ‘Referendum 2020’ convention, sponsored by the Sikhs for Justice, was financed and organized by ISI but strangely concealed on proximity of his colleague Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa with main organizers of the convention and radical leader Baljit Singh Daduwal whom Capt Amarinder has described as “mischievious”.
Grewal urged the Congress high command to dismiss Bajwa immediately and register criminal cases for his anti-national activities.
“If he (Amarinder) was privy to the facts about ISI involvement, why he kept the House in dark about this vital information and committed a breach of privilege of the House,” asked Grewal adding that a Lt Col of Pakistani army was main facilitator providing logistic support to organizers of the event.
Grewal said: “Despite this, Capt Amarinder is taking cudgels to go at Akalis hammer and tongs and fix them. Why should Akalis be penalized for the sins of ISI...This dichotomy of Amarinder defies all logic.”
He said that Congress connections with radicals, especially with SFJ through Bajwa, are amply proved and the party owe an explanation to Punjab on such alarming disclosures.
SAD leader also questioned Punjab Government’s rationale to transfer sacrilege cases from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to Punjab police arguing that the latter had no expertise in cracking the cases having inter-state network with international ramification.
Surely, intention of the state government is not to reach the root cause but to create a hoopla to hoodwink the gullible Punjabis and defame the Akalis, he said.