I will always strive for development of Punjab says Badal

Baba Bakala (Amritsar), August 19 – Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced that he would never compromise with the principles of the Khalsa Panth and would always strive for the development of Punjab.

Addressing a gathering at the historic Rakhar Punia Mela here, the SAD president appealed to the Panth (Sikh community) to recognize the betrayers in their midst, saying “these people are in league with agencies who want to weaken the SAD as well as Sikh institutions”.

Asking the community to recognize the threat from both within and outside, Sukhbir Badal said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) was broken and a separate Gurdwara Committee was formed for Haryana under a well-planned design. “Now we have also witnessed how the RSS and the BJP have taken over the Sri Hazur Sahib Committee and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. If we do not stop this attack on our institutions we will have only ourselves to blame”.

The SAD president also spoke eloquently on how seventeen instances of sacrilege had occurred during Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tenure in Punjab but chief minister Bhagwant Mann had never spoken out against them and the government had even failed to nab the culprits behind these heinous acts. He also detailed how the chief minister had himself violated the sanctity of a shrine in Sultanpur Lodhi by ordering the police to take control of it.

Badal also spoke on how Punjab had gone down in all spheres during the last seven and a half years of Congress and AAP rule. “Both the Congress and AAP made tall promises but failed to waive debts of farmers or free the State of drugs”. He said no development had occurred in the last more than seven years. “All development you see happened during the SAD tenure of Parkash Singh Badal be it creation of expressways, thermal plants which made the State power surplus, airports or novel social welfare schemes like atta – daal, shagun and SC scholarships. He said the SC Scholarship scheme had led to provision of free education to 3.5 lakh Dalit students annually during SAD tenure. “Repeated scams and mismanagement has made this figure come down to less than one lakh students per year now”, he added.

The conference witnessed a speech by Bandi Singh Gurdeep Singh Khera who came out in support of the SAD. The Bandi Singh in a spirited speech exposed those including Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode and Baljit Singh Daduwal who he said were working as cohorts of central agencies and even politicians like Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Iqbal Singh Lalpura who he said were working against the interest of the Bandi Singhs. Khera also made a scathing attack against Prem Singh Chandumajra asserting the latter had led the police under Sri Darbar Sahib during Operation Black Thunder. He said in stark contrast former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was responsible for the transfer of several Bandi Singhs to Punjab and their subsequent parole. He asked the ‘sangat’ to choose between the rule of Parkash Singh Badal who has restored normalcy in the State and those who wanted to disrupt peace in Punjab.

Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia in his speech spoke on how injustice was being done to Bandi Singhs and how their continued incarceration was violating their human rights. Asking how the centre would justify the release of the rapists of Bilkis Bano and repeated paroles to criminal Gurmeet Ram Raheem but deny justice to the Bandi Singhs, the SAD leader said “how can we expect such a government to give justice to our sister who was raped and brutally killed in West Bengal few days back”. Bikram Majithia appealed to the SAD president to write to the President and bring to the latter’s notice that 26 lakh Punjabis had signed an appeal demanding the release of the Bandi Singhs. Majithia urged the SGPC to launch a march to Delhi from Amritsar to demand the release of the Bandi Singhs. He appealed to the Sudhar Lehar Akali faction not to play opportunistic politics.

SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami spoke on the steps taken by the Committee to seek the release of the Bandi Singhs and how some members of the Committee formed for this task including Baljit Singh Daduwal and Harmeet Singh Kalka had sabotaged the move. He asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to tell why he was denying permission for the prosecution of Gurmeet Ram Raheem under Section 295 – A .

Senior leaders including Gulzar Singh Ranike, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Baljit Singh Jalal Usma, Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal ,Veer Singh Lopoke, Gurbachan Singh Babbehali, Sarabjit Singh Jhinjar and Rajanbir Singh spoke on the occasion.