Monetary interests bind Badals and Chautalas: Khaira
Monday, 13/10/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141013/punjab.htm#6
Chandigarh : State Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira today said the friendship between the Badals and the Chautalas was based on financial interests. In a statement issued here today, he said the Badals' decision to campaign for the Chautalas in Haryana by even annoying their alliance partners (the BJP) was based on monetary favours granted to them by the Ch Devi Lal clan.
He said 17 acres of prime commercial property (worth around Rs 10,000 crore) situated in the heart of Gurgaon was gifted by Ch Devi Lal to the Badals at a throwaway price of Rs 4 crore in 1989. That property now housed two seven-star hotels owned by Sukhbir Badal, a possession that ultimately laid the foundation of the flourishing business empire of the Badals.
He alleged by allotting property to the Badals in Gurgaon, Ch Devi Lal was actually returning a favour of Badal (the then Chief Minister) who accepted a Rs 2-crore cheque from the Haryana Government to allow digging of the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna link canal (SYL) in 1978-79.
Khaira said the disputed construction of the SYL canal not only led to a mass agitation by the Akali Dal from Kapoori village in April 1980, but it also shoved Punjab into a whirlpool of terrorism that claimed more than 25,000 lives. "Till date, Badal has not contradicted receiving Rs 2-crore cheque from Ch Devi Lal in lieu of the SYL canal construction," he said.
Because of their mutually profitable friendship, the SAD, under the leadership of the Badals, gave up state's claim over Chandigarh, Khera said.
