CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today expressed solidarity with protesting journalists and RTI activists against whom false cases have been registered by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government even as he appealed to Punjabis to fight this injustice tooth and nail.
Assuring journalists that the SAD was with them and would support them to the hilt while speaking at a dharna organised by them in sector 17 here, the SAD president said “the AAP government thinks it can browbeat Punjabis with these tactics but it should know that Punjabis have always stood up to injustice and will rise as one against the AAP government also”.
Asserting that the fight had been transformed into a people's fight, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the journalists and RTI activists who have been framed in false cases were highlighting the loot of the resources of Punjab at the hands of Arvind Kejriwal”. He said the SAD had also filed RTI applications to expose the manner in which the State helicopter was being misused but the AAP government had consistently denied information on the same”.
Mr Badal also highlighted how Arvind Kejriwal was looting Punjab like the East India Company by campaigning across the country at the expense of the Punjab government. “Airplanes with twenty seater capacity are booked regularly to ferry Kejriwal to other States. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann is also included in the entourage to ensure the Punjab government pays the bill”. He said similarly Punjab government officials were travelling to Delhi constantly to take commands from Kejriwal even as AAP workers had been posted with ministers at government expense.
Stating that against an annual budget of Rs 30 - 35 crore during SAD tenure, the AAP government was spending more than Rs 1000 crore per year on advertisements and had already spent Rs 4, 500 crore under this head till now, Mr Badal said “never has so much money been spent for self publicity in the history of the State”.