JAGRAON (NIHAL SINGH WALA): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today challenged chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi to make evidence linking the Ludhiana bomb blast to his political rivals’ public or apologize for playing cheap politics on such a sensitive issue which could destroy peace and communal harmony in the State.
The SAD President was talking to newsmen after addressing massive gatherings in favour of SR Kaler in Jagraon and Baldev Singh Manuke in Nihalsinghwala.
Mr Sukhbir Badal said it did not behove the chief minister to claim that the disturbances were occurring in the State after he had registered a case against former minister Bikram Majithia. “It seems Mr Charanjit Channi has lost his mental balance. In case he has any evidence linking any Akali leader with any such heinous crime he should make the evidence public immediately. If he cannot do that he should issue a public apology for trying to politicize the tragedy”.
Mr Badal also pointed out that five more blasts had taken place in different parts of Punjab during the last four months. He said the chief minister should give a status report of the probe conducted into all these incidents. “It is clear that the government has been caught sleeping. It has been busy trying to frame its political rivals and given a field day to anti-national forces to disturb the peace of the State”. He said if the government had probed the earlier blasts the Ludhiana tragedy could have been averted.
Taking on the chief minister for remaining busy in befooling Punjabis, Mr Badal said “you have done nothing since the last few months except make empty promises and waste State resources by claiming false credit through full page newspaper advertisements”. He said this was the reason that the chief minister had lost all credibility and was even being referred to as Ailanjit Singh.
Asserting that only 150 hours of misrule of the Congress government were left, Mr Sukhbir Badal said the government was busy trying to frame Akali leaders in false cases only. He gave the example of an attempt to murder cases registered against the sons of party Moga district President Teerath Singh Mahla’s sons on trumped up charges.
Warning officers that all false cases would be probed by a Commission once the SAD-BSP alliance government was formed, Mr Badal said action would also be initiated against those who were responsible for filing the false cases. He said the next government would also review all anti-people decisions taken by the Congress government in the past three months.
Mentioning the three recent sacrilege cases which took place at Sri Anandpur Sahib and Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, he slammed the chief minister and the home minister for not taking it seriously. He said in two of the cases, the accused were handed over to the police but it failed to take any action in the matter. “This has hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide”, he added.
Addressing the gatherings, the SAD President reiterated the promises he had made to Punjabis, including Rs 2000 to women holding BPL cards, 800 units free power to all, opening of mega schools, 33 per cent reservation to government school students in colleges and universities, 50 per cent reservation to women in government jobs, Rs 10 lakh health insurance to all, district level medical colleges, Rs 5 lakh interest free loan to unemployed youth for starting their own ventures, tubewell connections to all farmers, Rs 50, 000 per acre crop insurance and diesel at the rate of Rs 10 per liter less than present rate for agricultural purposes.