Welcoming Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s decision to visit Punjab next month, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said that the young Gandhi scion’s visit would help the SAD-BJP alliance immeasurably in the same way his flop show had helped the Congress opponents in Uttar Pradesh.
“Before embarking on the sham and sanitised visit which could be best described as a photo-op to befool Punjabis, Rahul should at least answer for his as well as his family’s crimes against Punjab and tell Punjabis why the Gandhi family was hell bent on taking revenge against them,” said Senior Akali leader and MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
He said: “Your grandmother sent tanks into the Darbar Sahab and gutted it with mortars. Your father acted as a catalyst for the massacre of innocent Sikhs in 1984 by giving a free rein to Congress goons. You yourself have emerged as the biggest enemy of the youth of Punjab as you have defamed them and tried to ruin their future by dubbing them as drug addicts.”
Dhindsa said that it was a shame that Rahul had never asked for forgiveness from Punjabis for the vengeful acts of his grand-mother which had left a deep scar on the psyche of Punjabis worldwide.
Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi had not only indirectly encouraged the 1984 massacre of Sikhs but was also responsible for denying Punjabis their capital city of Chandigarh. “As far as Rahul is concerned, he has still not expressed remorse for the lies and deceit practiced by him by branding 70 per cent of Punjabi youth as drug addicts,” he added.
Stating that it was not too late to mend fences, the Akali MP said that Rahul should immediately tender an unqualified apology to the youth of Punjab for defaming them and ruining their reputation. “But such honesty and truthfulness would be too much to expect from the Gandhi scion who only read out from prepared scripts handed over to him by his sycophants,” he added.
Dhindsa also told Rahul to disclose one contribution he had made to Punjab in his role as scion of the Gandhi family as well as Congress vice president.
Stating that the days of sycophantic Gandhi politics was over, the Akali mp said in the present circumstances Rahul would only sow the seeds of the eradication of the Congress from the soil of Punjab in the 2017 assembly election as well as the end of his relevance in national politics.