SAD’s stand on Bhullar issue has been inconsistent
Saturday, 20/04/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130420/punjab.htm#9
Chandigarh : The SAD, which has mounted a spirited campaign to save militant Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar from the gallows, is being not only being accused of adopting double standards on the issue, but has also jeopardised “inclusive” politics propounded by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The SAD think tank feels guarding the Panthic agenda is most important, especially when the Punjab Congress has decided to focus on its traditional Hindu urban and Dalit vote bank. It is also aware that it had lost part of the Panthic vote bank in the rural Malwa heartland when Capt Amarinder Singh headed the Pradesh Congress.
In this context it is not only important for the party to be seen as standing up for a Sikh cause in Punjab but nationally too as the SAD wants to be seen as a party representing the Sikhs nationwide.
However, even as the party has taken up the case for commuting Bhullar’s death sentence to life imprisonment with the Prime Minister and with the President, it has simultaneously opened itself to allegations of double standards.This is because the SAD seems to have twice failed Bhullar, whose cause it now espouses.
The first time was in 2009 when the SAD-BJP Government led by Parkash Singh Badal refused a request to shift the militant from the Tihar Jail to a jail in Punjab, citing security reasons. This despite the fact that Bhullar’s counsel had petitioned the court, saying his client was dying a “slow death” in the small cell in which he was confined in Tihar.
The second time was again in 2009 when while defending an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in a case involving the present Director- General of Police (DGP), Sumedh Singh Saini, the government called Bhullar a “hardcore and an experienced criminal”.
The SAD has little to say on both the issues. Party spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said as far as the affidavit in the Saini case was concerned, it was a part of a “routine police exercise” and there was no politics in it.
He said it was strange that Saini, earlier presented by the Congress as a national hero, was being denigrated by it now. Cheema also maintained the SAD was only asking for what was possible under the Constitution.
Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa has accused Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of shedding “crocodile tears” on the Bhullar issue.
He said the SAD and the BJP stood exposed on the issue with BJP national secretary Laxmi Kanta Chawla and Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma opposing the clemency demand. Bajwa demanded that the CM should give a public clarification on the "double standards".
