CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today held ‘dharnas’ to mark the completion of one year misrule of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the course of which it said the Bhagwant Mann government had reneged on all promises made to Punjabis besides leading Punjab into chaos by presiding over the complete breakdown in law and order.
SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal presided over the ‘dharnas’ of Lambi and Bhucho Assembly constituencies, during the course of which he said it seemed like gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and not Bhagwant Mann was running the State. “Lawrence decides who will live or die and who will pay how much tax”. He said this state of affairs was leading to the flight of industry from Punjab and even the common man was feeling unsafe.
Asserting that the chief minister was busy in vendetta politics, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the day is not far off when Mr Bhagwant Mann will be booked for withdrawing the security cover of Sidhu Moosewala and advertising the same. Mr Mann will also face the heat in matters of corruption including the excise scam which had led to a loss of Rs 500 crore to the State exchequer”.
Stating that the chief minister had forsaken the State, Mr Badal said the former was presently busy in Madhya Pradesh because the latter was going to the polls this year. “Earlier the chief minister was busy in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat assembly elections”. He said the chief minister was also frittering away the resources of Punjab with as much as Rs 750 crore being earmarked for advertising AAP across the country, especially in those States which were going to the polls. He said it was because of this that cuts had been imposed on social welfare schemes like ‘aata-daal’, ‘shagun’ and old age pension.
Mr Badal said now the government was moving towards installing meters on agricultural tubewells which would only run when appropriately recharged. He said this would have a huge bearing on the free power facility extended to farmers by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The SAD president also appealed to Punjabis to strengthen the real ‘varis’ of Punjab and Punjabis – the Shiromani Akali Dal. He said it was only after the SAD was weakening on the electoral arena that forces inimical to it ganged up to break the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) by creating a separate Haryana and Delhi gurdwara management committees, both of which were being run by the Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS).
The dharnas at both Lambi and Bhucho witnessed phenomenal attendance with Punjabis calling for the ouster of the corrupt AAP government and vowing to work to ensure all AAP candidates lost their security deposit in the 2024 parliament polls. Mr Balwinder Singh Bhundar also attended Lambi & Bhucho dharnas. Successful dharnas were held across the State with senior leaders Gurcharan Singh Babehali and Sucha Singh Chottepur leading the dharnas at Gurdaspur and Dinanagar, Surinder Singh Bhullarathan at Garshankar, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema at Sri Anandpur Sahib, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and S R Kler at Jagraon, Gurpreet Singh Rajukhanna and Sarbjit Singh Jhinjher at Fatehgarh Sahib, Maheshinder Singh Grewal at Bassi Pathana, Teerath Singh Mahla and Baldev Singh Munuke at Nihalsinghwala, Janmeja Singh Sekhon Joginder Jindu and Montu Vohra at Ferozepur, Gobind Singh Longowal at Lehra and Surjit Singh Rakhra and Jaspal Singh Chattha at Patiala (Rural).