Channi questions Badals on Punjabi Suba 50th anniversary celebrations
Thursday, 26/05/2016
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GURDASPUR: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday slammed deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for turning a blind eye to rising crime in the state.
Citing the National Crime Records Bureau figures, Channi rubbished Sukhbir’s “absurd” claims of improvement in law and order and questioned how he would explain the murderous attack on Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale and Namdhari sect matriarch Chand Kaur besides sacrilege incidents.
Channi was speaking during a function here, where Ashok Chaudhary took over as the new Gurdaspur district Congress president. Channi said what was all the more “horrifying” was the fact that a “prominent person”, with whom the people who attacked Dhadrianwale are allegedly associated, had warned of retaliation in case his organisation is criticised.
The CLP leader said while the situation in the state was deteriorating, the Parkash Singh Badal government and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have decided to celebrate 50th anniversary of ‘Punjabi Suba’, which was called as a black day by the then party chief Sant Fateh Singh. The Akali Dal had described the re-organisation as a grave injustice to Punjab and launched Dharamyudh Morcha in August 1982 that pushed the state into fire that claimed 50,000 lives over the next 13 years, he said. Channi said that it is after 50 years that the SAD has a change of heart.
Channi questioned whether the chief minister would apologise to the people before organising the celebrations, as he was equally responsible for what happened in the state. He said Badal should first denounce the politics of the Akali Dal during the last 50 years before organising the celebrations.
Others senior Congress leaders present at the function were state legislators Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Randhawa and Aruna Chaudhary besides Raman Bahl, Gurmit Pahra, Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa, Balwinder Laddi, Salamat Masih, Roshan Joseph, Tripta Thakur, Inderjeet Singh Randhawa, Deepinder Randhawa, Neeraj Salhotra, Naresh puri and Parminder Gill. Later, all the leaders went to the district Congress office and made the newly appointed president officially sit on the chair.