Capt sees Badal hand in Kotkapura row

Friday, 16/10/2015

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CHANDIGARH: Congress leaders are blaming the Punjab government for the violence over ‘bir’ theft and desecration, and Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, has said he sees “the hidden hand of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in the Kotkapura incidents that led to the loss of two lives”.

Appealing for peace and harmony, he cautioned the people of Punjab to beware of “Badal’s divisive game”. “Punjab’s farmers and farm labourers have lost all faith in the government and have been protesting for about a month now,” the former chief minister pointed out in a statement issued here on Thursday.

He also referred to youth unrest because of joblessness that “the Badal government is trying to crush ruthlessly”. “Knowing Badal so well for more than four decades now, I really cannot rule out his hand behind the incidents in run up to the violence and subsequent firing on protesters,” he added.

Punjab leader of opposition Sunil Jakhar said had the state home department acted four months ago and caught the miscreants who stole a ‘bir’ (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib at Burj Jawaharsingh Wala village in Faridkot district, the unrest could have been avoided. He described the desecration of the ‘bir’ as most unfortunate and said while it needed to be condemned by all, some people were exploiting the situation.

‘INTEL FAILURE’
Jakhar asked deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the home portfolio and has set up a reward of `1 crore on information about the culprits, why he had not pulled up the police officials for not making any breakthrough in the theft case in four months.

BID TO DIVERT FROM FARMERS’S ISSUE: BAJWA
Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa has accused the state government of creating the violent situation in Kotkapura to divert attention from farmers’ issues.

Addressing media on Thursday at the central jail here where he met Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, who is in judicial custody, Bajwa said this wasn’t the first such instance when the SAD had resorted to diversionary tactics. “When a girl died after been molested aboard and pushed off an Orbit bus owned by the Badals on May 1, the Badals took out a religious exhibition on wheels for a month until public outrage had settled,” said the Congress leader.

Earlier in the day, Bajwa visited the families of Gurjeet Singh ‘Bittu’ of Sarawan village and Harkrishen Singh of Niamivala village, who were killed in Wednesday’s police firing.