Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday dared his successor Capt Amarinder Singh to demonstrate courage to prosecute and try him in a court of law “if there is any shred of truth in allegations” on the sacrilege issue.
“If you have moral and political courage, take us to court on the basis of whatever evidence you can cook up against us,” said Badal said at a rally organised by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its ally BJP in Abohar — the home constituency of Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar.
Lashing out against Capt Amarinder, the Akali veteran said that Capt Amarinder’s “blasphemous tirade” against the SAD on the sacrilege issue is merely “an attempt to divert people's attention away from his own crime of sacrilege by making false promises while swearing on the holy Gutka Sahib”.
“Capt Amarinder is indulging in petty and destructive vendetta politics to divert public attention from the failures of his own government on every front, including farm debt waiver, drug peddling eradication, jobs, and increased old-age pensions,” he said.
Referring to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 when the SAD-BJP government was in power in Punjab, Badal said: “Guru Granth Sahib is dearer to us than our lives. We can sacrifice millions of Badals and countless millions of Sukhbir Badals just to safeguard the honour, dignity and glory of the sacred Guru Granth Sahib.”
Badal, saying that the Operation Bluestar was the “biggest and the most painful incident of sacrilege in the history of the world”, said: “How can those, who rolled tanks into the sacred Harmandar Sahib and destroyed Akal Takht Sahib in Amritsar in 1984, even understand the purity and profound depth of our sentiments and devotion to Guru Granth Sahib?”
The former Chief Minister said that he and his party had always stood for a fair inquiry into all cases of sacrilege by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and this was why the SAD had rejected the “biased” Justice Ranjit Singh Commission. “The retired judge Ranjit Singh was a close relative of AAP leader Sukhpal Khaira, and an evening-pal of the Cief Minister,” he said.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal said that Capt Amarinder Singh is ‘bujdil’ (coward) because he never agreed to protest against oppressive governments. “I remember you ran away from going to jail for the cause of the people,” he said.
Telling the Chief Minister not to even think of comparing himself with Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir said: “Badal Sahab has spent more time in jail than your tenure in politics”. He went on to add, “It is surprising that a sharabi-kababi raja, whose character is known to each and every child of Punjab, is trying to defame others.”
Sukhbir, launching a scathing attack on the Congress party as well as Capt Amarinder for trying to revive extremism by encouraging the likes of Dhyan Singh Mand and Baljit Singh Daduwal, said: “Earlier also, the Congress party had given birth to terrorism through persons like late Giani Zail Singh who had encouraged radical elements to show down the Akalis.”
“The present Congress government is also doing the same by facilitating the dharna at Bargari and actively consorting with radical elements. The collusion is such that Daduwal had been caught meeting the Chief Minister at his official residence at night, he said adding that even the Cabinet Minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa admitted to meeting him.
Taking on state Congress president Jakhar, Sukhbir said: “Today, the SAD flag is flying high not only in Jakhar’s village Panjkosi but also Abohar town. This is the same Jakhar whose father Balram Jakhar as Lok Sabha Speaker had said that if we have to kill two crore Sikhs for the sake of the country’s integrity, we will kill them.”
He said that Jakhar was also unleashing a reign of terror by registering false cases against women and even minors.