Sukhbir Badal challenges Kejriwal to open debate on Punjab paper leaks

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday challenged AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal to an open debate on the alleged paper leaks and recruitment scams in Punjab, saying he would “expose” him and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann with facts and figures.

Addressing a dharna at Government Rajindra College here as part of the ‘Bhavikh Bachao Morcha’ being led by the Students Organisation of India (SOI), the student wing of the SAD, Badal asked Kejriwal to explain why not a single head had rolled despite “repeated examination leaks” that, he claimed, had impacted more than 10 lakh students across the State.

The protest is demanding the immediate resignation of Punjab Education Minister Harjot Bains and Health Minister Balbir Singh and a CBI probe into what the SAD described as “ten paper leak cases in Punjab”.

The Opposition has been targeting the AAP Government over alleged examination paper leaks following the detection of a cheating racket in the recent pharmacy officer recruitment examination.

Chief Minister Mann, however, has maintained that not a single incident of paper leak has taken place in Punjab during the more than four years of his Government’s tenure.

Challenging Kejriwal to hold an open debate with him at any university of his choice in Punjab, Badal said, “I will lay bare before the people of Punjab as to how you leaked the papers. How outsiders were given jobs with facts and figures and how Punjabi youth were ignored.”

He also criticised Kejriwal for shedding “crocodile tears” for students and sitting on a dharna in Delhi during a recent protest there, while allegedly ignoring students in Punjab.

“Are they not your children? Why are you betraying Punjabi students like this? Who will fight for their rights?” he asked.

Badal condemned the AAP Government for denying the alleged paper leaks and said the agitation would continue until the “guilty ministers” resigned.

“If there was no paper leak, thousands of students would not be sitting on dharna here,” he said.

The SAD president also reiterated that 100 per cent of Government jobs would be reserved for Punjabis if his party returned to power in the 2027 Assembly polls, scheduled to be held early next year.

He said the erstwhile SAD Government had enacted a law to make this possible and had provided jobs to three lakh youth, but the AAP Government overturned it to give jobs to outsiders.

“We will bring back legislation to secure jobs in Punjab for Punjabis,” he said.

Badal said the next SAD Government would provide incentives only to industrial units that employed at least 75 per cent Punjabis.

Laying out his blueprint for the state’s youth, he said the education act would be amended to reserve 50 per cent seats in private universities for poor Punjabi students, with the Government bearing 50 per cent of their fee.

The same formula, he said, would be extended to medical and veterinary colleges.

“The next SAD Government is committed to establishing a World Skill University which will work with corporate giants to train youth so that they can be automatically absorbed by the same companies,” he said.

He also announced that the SAD would promote youth entrepreneurship by providing interest-free loans of Rs 10 lakh to young people to start their own ventures.

Calling the Shiromani Akali Dal “Punjab’s own party”, Badal told the gathering, “We promise to protect you because you are our family and this is our home. We are not outsiders. And that’s the biggest difference.”

Badal also claimed that the AAP Government had given some Government jobs to outsiders.

He claimed that while filling 68 posts of Veterinary Inspectors, 24 vacancies were filled from Haryana and 12 from Rajasthan.

Similarly, he claimed that 600 candidates from Haryana and 100 from Rajasthan were recruited while filling 2,100 posts of Linemen.