Bathinda (Punjab), April 29 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Monday alleged that central agencies started a campaign against his party immediately after it quit the BJP-led NDA government and even planted their own men to accuse the party of committing sacrilege.
Addressing a gathering at Sardulgarh town in favour of his wife and party candidate from the Bathinda parliamentary seat, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, he said those who had attacked the SAD virulently for the acts of sacrilege eight years back, including self-styled panthic leader Baljit Singh Daduwal, had now joined the BJP.
"This proves there was a sinister agenda to defame the SAD and weaken it," he said
Noting that the SAD was known for selfless service, he said: "Leaders like Parkash Singh Badal have been jailed for as long as 16 years in far-off places like Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore and Panchmari. Badal Sahab even did not avail bail to attend his daughter’s wedding."
He said the situation had changed now and people now wanted that they should be taken out of jail after one year alone.
Sukhbir Badal also took on the BJP for taking over Sikh religious bodies. He said the BJP government in Maharashtra had tinkered with the Sri Hazoor Sahib Gurdwara managing board and nominated 12 members to the board to take it into its control.
He said members of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee had been co-opted into the BJP even as the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) had been broken to create a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana. He said Sikh bodies under the control of the BJP like the Delhi Committee led by Manjinder Singh Sirsa were now even denying ‘langar’ to those who were holding ‘dharnas’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The SAD President also asserted that the Central government had virtually taken over the AAP government in Punjab, alleging that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was already functioning as a "B team of the BJP" and was ready to become the BJP’s Chief Minister in Punjab in case the party formed the government at the Centre.
In an emotional pitch to the electorate, the SAD President also asked the audience not to vote for the Congress.
"Elections in Punjab are occurring on June 1, the same day Indira Gandhi attacked Sri Darbar Sahib with tanks and mortars. No Punjabi can forget the carnage which occurred at Sri Darbar Sahib or the subsequent genocide of Sikhs."
Badal also spoke about how Mansa, which was one of the most backward areas in the state, had developed manifold during previous SAD tenures. From the Bathinda seat, which seems set for a multi-corned contest, the SAD has pitted three-time MP and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal against BJP’s Parampal Kaur Sidhu, a 2011-batch IAS officer who took premature retirement to contest the election.
Harsimrat Kaur has been representing the constituency in the Lok Sabha since 2009. The state's ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s nominee is Gurmeet Singh Khudian, while the Congress has fielded former legislator and SAD rebel Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu.
Khudian is currently a member of the state Assembly from the Lambi constituency and Cabinet Minister in the state government. He defeated SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal by a margin of more than 11,000 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Punjab will go to the polls in the final seventh phase on June 1, with the date of counting of ballots on June 4.
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