'Don’t forget you started as Cong MLA in 1957’, Capt Amarinder reminds ‘ageing’ Badal

Saturday, 16/02/2013

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/_Don___t-forget-you-started-as-Cong-MLA-in-1957____-Capt-Amarinder-reminds-___aging___-Bad.html

MOGA: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today reminded the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that he must not forget that he (Badal) had started his political career in 1957 from Malout as a Congress MLA only.

Addressing a series of public meetings in villages Manderanwala, Budhsinghwala, Jahndewala and Kothe Patti Mohabbat in support of the party candidate Vijay Sathi here today, Capt Amarinder remarked, “with age Mr Badal seems to have developed the symptoms of dementia as well and that is why he has forgotten that in 1957 he was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha from Malout constituency as a Congress candidate only”.

The PCC President accused Mr Badal of always being power hungry. He disclosed that when Akali Dal asked its members to resign as Congress MLA, Badal did not resign. “He was dragged out of Congress and it took him three years to resign as a Congress MLA”, he said, while revealing that on March 15 1960 the working committee of the Akali Dal asked all its members who had contested on the Congress ticket to resign from the assembly and Badal refused as he was always desperate to cling to power and he resigned after over three years and that too quite reluctantly.

Maintaining that Badal had reduced Akali Dal to a closely held private limited company, Capt Amarinder said, it was no longer the same Akali Dal which had participated in the freedom and other struggles and whose leaders had sacrificed everything for the national cause.

“Now Badal is running the party as a private and family owned profit making company with all his family members as its directors with huge financial stakes”, he said, while adding, Badal does not like to tolerate anyone in the party who can challenge his and his family’s authority and he always betrayed such people and let them down to secure and safeguard his own position.

The former Chief Minister said, be it Sant Harcharan Singh Longowal, Gurcharan Singh Tohra or Surjit Singh Barnala just to name a few, Badal did not tolerate anyone in the party and betrayed everyone to secure his and his family’s position in the party. “Badal can never look beyond himself and his family”, he remarked saying, he turned Akali Dal into a profit making company for himself and amassed huge fortune worth hundreds of crores out of it.

Among others present on the occasion included Vijay Sathi, Dr Malti Thapar, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Darshan Singh Brar, Harpreet Hero, Pawan Thapar, Jagdarshan Kaur, Tara Singh Sandhu, Col Babu Singh, Manjit Singh Mann, Jagbeer Brar, Hans Raj Josan, Milkiat Singh Brar, Jagtar Singh Rajla, Gurmeet Singh Khudian and others.