CHANDIGARH:Shiromani Akali Dal today accused the AAP Supremo CM Arvind KejriWal of "deliberately, and systematically" insulting the Panthic culture and values as well as the Punjabi language through continued neglect and discrimination by the Delhi state government.
Addressing media persons at party headquarters here this afternoon, Mr Harcharan Bains , Principal Advisor to the SAD president Sukhbir SIngh Badal challenged the AAP CM face Bhagwant Mann to a direct live debate "on the AAP discrimination of the Punjabi language and of Punjabi and Sikh culture. I am ready for this debate at a place and time and gathering of your choosing. I have no grouse against Kejrival as he is a non-Punjabi and a known hater of everything that is Punjab and concerns Punjabi culture. My grouse is against you for your silence on this discrimination against your mother tongue to which you owe everything that you are as an artist . Your silence on the insult heaped on the Guru's language and culture is a stab in the back of Gurmukhi and everything that it symbolises , " Mr Bains told Mr Bhagwant Mann
Mr Bains alleged that while the Delhi government has excluded the the teaching of Punjabi language as a subject through exclusion from the list of of the Delhi Education Board , Kejrival has deliberately refused to include martial sports like Gatka, patronised by Shri Guru Gobind SIngh., among the disciplines for sports quota for admission to various professional medical, engineering, IT and other courses and for government jobs of the Delhi state.
"Kejrival added insult to the injury by appointing a non-literary junior government official , as the Chairman of the Punjabi Academy in Delhi. The new chairman of the Punjabi Academy in Delhi doesn't even know the Punjabi language, forget about his being an eminent writer. The position reserved for great writers liek Amrita Pritam, Kartar Singh Duggal, Surjit Patar, professor Mohan Singh and the like has been bestowed on someone who cannot even write Punjabi, " said Mr Bains .
The Akali spokesperson further said that Bhagwant Mann is too scared of Kejrival to question im on why the Guru's culture and language are being insulted by the Delhi CM