No reason why BJP should support SAD, says Sidhu

Monday, 13/10/2014

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141013/punjab.htm#1

Chandigarh : Continuing his tirade against the Akali leadership, BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu today said “there was not one good reason why the BJP should support the SAD government in Punjab”. The cricketer-turned-politician and three-time MP from Amritsar said the Akali Dal, “which was politically harming the BJP in Haryana, in fact, did not deserve to be supported by the saffron party”.

Speaking to The Tribune on phone, Sidhu said, “Since 1966, the Congress leadership did not allow any Akali Chief Minister to complete his full term. It was only when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister in late 1990s that the Akali government completed its full term from 1997 to 2002. It is because of the BJP that the Akalis formed the government in Punjab in 2007 and 2012.”

He alleged it was sad that the Akalis spared no opportunity to corner the BJP in Punjab. “The SAD leaders got our candidates defeated in municipal elections. Cases were registered against our activists. It used every opportunity to undermine the BJP in one way or the other. I will continue to question the Akali leadership on various issues,” he said.

Sidhu said he was ready for an open debate with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on various issues related to Punjab. He said he would not buckle under pressure and would continue to raise his voice against the alleged attrocities committed on the BJP workers in Punjab.

“I am strongly opposed to ‘Dandatantar’ (wielding stick against opponents) and will oppose strongly the flourishing of such a political culture in Punjab,” he said.

Asked whether his wife Navjot Kaur would resign as an MLA, Sidhu said she was in the government as a BJP nominee, and not because of the Akali Dal. “Why should she resign,” he asked. “I have been regularly briefing the party high command on what has been happening in the state. They know it all,” he said.

On SAD support to the INLD, he said, “The support by the Akalis is due to vested interests.” He claimed the Akali Dal once was a great party having glorious past of sacrifices, “but that it had now reduced to a fiefdom of a few individuals”.

While campaigning in Haryana, Sidhu had recently said that Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal had allegedly stabbed the BJP in its back by supporting the INLD. The former Amritsar MP had said that on one hand, the Badals had an alliance with the BJP in Punjab and, on the other, they were supporting the INLD contesting elections against the saffron party. He wondered how the Badals would justify their support to the Chautalas, who were serving imprisonment after being convicted in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam.

The SAD leaders got our candidates defeated in municipal elections. Cases were registered against our activists. It used every opportunity to undermine the BJP in one way or the other. I will continue to question the Akali leadership on various issues.- Navjot Singh Sidhu, bjp leader