Punjab Congress on Wednesday lashed out at the Badals for trying to befool the people by taking a sham high moral ground on the Sutlej Yamuna link (SYl) canal issue after brazenly selling off the State’s water rights and failing to protect its interest in the courts for 10 years.
“Had the Badals, who misruled Punjab for a decade, taken proper legal recourse, matter would have not come to such a sorry pass,” senior Congress leaders and Cabinet Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rana Gurjit Singh, said in a joint statement.
They said that both Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal were now trying to provoke Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to defy the Supreme Court, clearly exposing their utter lack of faith in the judiciary.
“The Badals have never believed in the rule of law and took no meaningful steps to fight Punjab’s SYl case while they were in power,” said the Congress leaders, adding that the former Chief Minister had, in fact, deliberately got the case messed up in court as part of the deal he had struck with former Haryana Chief Minister Devi lal during an earlier tenure.
Punjab Government, under Badal, appointed as their Advocate General Ashok Aggarwal, a Haryanvi advocate who was, at one time, also AG of Haryana (under the Chautala Government), and the said officer never went to the court for hearing on the SYl issue, the leaders pointed out.
Further, they said, the main reason for bringing in the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, which was enacted during the previous tenure of Captain Amarinder, was never presented before the judiciary. What is more, AK Ganguly, the main architect of the Act, was removed by Badal from the legal team appointed to take the case forward in the court, they added.