Once again writing to the SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal to join the State Government’s programme to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th prakash purb, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday asked the Akali MP and the Union Minister Harsimrat Badal to stop exploiting the historic occasion for petty political gains by spreading falsehoods about the important religious event.
Dubbing Harimsrat’s repeated attempts to malign the Government with baseless accusations as the brazen lies of an ill-informed woman, Capt Amarinder said that she was trying to reduce the sacred occasion into a disgraceful saga of fibs and fabrications.
Instead of asking the SGPC, which was a tool in the hands of her SAD, to extend support to the State-level function, Harimsrat was going all out to drive a deeper wedge between the Government and the religious body, he said.
Lambasting Harsimrat over her divisive and provocative statements, Captain Amarinder said that her comments over the last few days had further exposed the party’s cheap mindset and disruptive political agenda. “For 10 years, they (SAD leaders) worked to destroy every vestige of Punjab’s socio-economic fibre, and are now trying to push the state back into its dark days with their insensitive and contentious statements,” he said.
Harsimrat talks of oneness, unity and peace, but her deeds are in complete variance with her comments, said the Chief Minister, pointing out that the Akalis had reduced the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) into a political instrument for their short-term gains.
‘Our government has been persistently appealing to all, including the SGPC, to rise above petty differences and celebrate the lifetime event in the spirit of Guru Nanak Dev’s teachings. However, this does not suit the interests of the Akalis, who are hell-bent on spreading disinformation and disharmony over the issue,” he added. Reiterating his government’s total support to SGPC for the celebrations of the event inside Gurdwara sahibs and properties controlled by the Committee, Capt Amarinder once again appealed to the SGPC chief to join hands with his Government to commemorate the grand occasion in a collective spirit of amity and brotherhood, rising above political, social and religious considerations.
Capt Amarinder, in his letter to SGPC chief, solicited Longowal’s wholehearted support to ensure a befitting celebration for the grand occasion, in line with the ethos and philosophy of universal brotherhood as propounded by the first Sikh Guru. In continuation of his earlier letter to the SGPC chief, Capt Amarinder apprised him that State Government had, on the directives of Akal Takht Jathedar, already nominated two Cabinet Ministers Charanjit Singh Channi and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa for inclusion in the joint commemoration committee.