CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition, Harpal Singh Cheema termed the claim made by the ruling Congress state president Navjot Singh Sidhu regarding the 13-point agenda of the government as a sham and demanded a one point reply that when the culprits including the conspirators of desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Behbal Kalan firing, will get exemplary punishment?
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Sunday, Harpal Singh Cheema sternly challenged the Congress government's 13-point agenda that Navjot Singh Sidhu and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi should only make it clear to the people of Punjab that within how many days will the conspirators and the culprits of the desecration and Behbal Kalan firing will get exemplary punishment. He said that the investigation into these cases has not been completed yet and the final process of submission of challan has not been completed. Then why the Channi government and the Congress president are repeatedly desecrating ‘Guru Sahib’ by making false claims regarding justice in the sacrilege and Behbal Kalan case? He challenged that if Channi and Sidhu had the slightest respect for the Guru and the Guru's sangat, they should ensure exemplary punishment for Guru Sahib's culprits in the next few days.
Citing the example of Arvind Kejriwal's 49-day government, Harpal Singh Cheema asked Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, “For the last two months the entire command of the state has been in the hands of both of you, but nothing has changed on the ground. Government coffers are being blindly misused to mislead the public and present false statistics. Corruption is still the same and the multi-faceted mafia is as dominant as ever. Private power companies continue to dominate, which is why you (Channi-Sidhu) have run away from canceling fatal power purchase agreements (PPAs) and come up with amendments. However, the claims were that the power deals would be canceled within four days after we (Sidhu-Channi) got the command. Similarly, unemployment, unemployment benefits, farmers-laborers loans and all other future issues are still pending as in these two months; the Congress leaders were either busy in infighting and then Channi Sahib made rounds to ‘Delhi Darbar’. The rest of the time was spent on dramas to gain reputation.”
The AAP leader further said that after wasting over four-and-a-half years, the Congress changed the ‘Alibaba’ to fool the people, but did not change its deceptive character and corrupt nature because corruption, lies, deception, hypocrisy, opportunism and stubbornness is ingrained in the blood of the Congress; had it not been so, the Congress would have fulfilled the oath of Sri Gutka Sahib. According to Cheema, those who use the name 'Guru' to win elections, what will be the status of common people for such indifferent people? This can be easily gauged from the Congress' over four-and-a-half-years tenure, he added.
Cheema said that if Sidhu and Channi felt that their Congress government had fulfilled all the promises made in 2017 to the farmers, laborers, youth, elderly, traders and the poor; then the Congress should seek votes for the 2022 elections on basis of its performance, in the same way that Arvind Kejriwal, after his five years in power, had demanded from the people of Delhi in the 2020 elections that if the Kejriwal government had done work, then vote; else not.