Sikki questions Badal over sangat darshans in Khadoor Sahib

Tuesday, 15/12/2015

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TARN TARAN: Congress leader and former Khadoor Sahab MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki has questioned chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s “sangat darshan” programmes in the Khadoor Sahib assembly segment and sought to know as to why he never bothered to visit the area in last four years.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Sikki said no matter how many “sangat darshans” Badal holds in Khadoor Sahib, people there would punish him in the by-election by again defeating the Akali candidate. “This is because as chief minister, Badal had failed to prevent incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib from occurring and re-occurring in the state,” he said, while referring to one such incident which happened in Baath village in the Khadoor Sahib assembly constituency that led to his resigning from the assembly.

Sikki maintained that he had resigned from the assembly to protest against the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and the failure of the Akali government to identify and punish the culprits. He said instead of punishing the guilty, the Akalis had killed two peaceful protesters in Kotkapura.

The Congress leader maintained that while the issues continued to remain unresolved, the Akalis including the chief minister and his deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, were trying to divert the attention of the people by way of “government-sponsored rallies”. He said the Akalis and the Badals were badly mistaken that people have forgotten the sacrilege and forgiven them.

The former legislator asked Badal as why did it need a byelection for him to reach out to the people. “Otherwise for four years you didn’t bother to come to Khadoor Sahib and now you are spending your days and nights here,” he added while pointing out that as Khadoor Sahib was represented by the Congress in the assembly, the chief minister decided against distribution of development grants in the area.

Referring to revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia’s challenge to him that he should not apply for the Congress ticket after having resigned, Sikki asked, “So do you accept that I resigned for the genuine and justified reason and you also accept that since you have failed to resolve the issue over which I resigned, I should not contest”.

He pointed out that he had resigned from the Vidhan Sabha only and not from politics or his party. “It is for my party to decide on whether I should contest the bypoll or not,” he added.