CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has ridiculed Akali Dal leader and his predecessor, Parkash Singh Badal, for the latter's desperate attempts to divert public attention from the ongoing SIT investigation against him in the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing cases by claiming it to be politically motivated.
Reacting to Badal's statement that the SIT was working under his "influence", Amarinder said that the government's job was over after it abided by the unanimous decision of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and formed the investigating team.
"SIT is an independent entity and the government has no role in its functioning", said the chief minister, adding that it was now up to the investigating officers to carry out the investigations in the manner they deem fit. He said that the SIT comprises highly competent officers and they are free to summon and question anyone.
"If anyone is found guilty by them, they will make a report and submit it to the court for further action", he said, adding that his government had no role whatsoever either in the ongoing investigations or their outcome.
He said that it was absolutely ridiculous for Badal to even suggest that the SIT report will be written by Punjab's Advocate General.
"Unlike you, Mr Badal, I believe in the law of the land and fair investigations", said the Chief Minister. Accusing Badal of playing the victim and indulging in theatrics by claiming that no democratically elected Chief Minister had been ever called for questioning in independent India, Amarinder said that it seems age had caught up with him and he was suffering from amnesia.
"Under your government, I was summoned and questioned by the police on frivolous charges at the Patiala circuit house", said the Chief Minister, while advising Badal to face the investigations as a law-abiding citizen.
Meanwhile, Punjab Urban and Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa called upon Badal to reveal as to why Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh and his associates were summoned to his residence in September 2015 before Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh was granted pardon.
"This is the key issue relating to the entire sacrilege narrative. It had come out at that time that the Jathedars had been summoned to official residence of Badal to secure pardon for the Dera chief. However, Badal himself must come record on this sensitive issue. That it was violation of Sikh Rehat-Maryada is a separate issue.
Badal has been five-time chief minister and also has the honour of Fakhr-e-Qaum Panth Rattan and as such, it is expected that he would only speak the truth", he said. He recalled that the pardon to Dera chief by Akal Takht in the blasphemy case of 2007 was withdrawn following Sikh anger that the Badals continue to face.
He called upon Badal to come out as to why there were no concerted efforts to trace the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singhwala on June 1, 2015 whose pages were subsequently found scattered in the streets of nearby Bargari village. The Badal government treated it just as an ordinary crime. In case the Bir had been traced, the subsequent tragic incidents relating to sacrilege could have been avoided. He asserted the SIT was doing its job professionally without any interference from the Amarinder government.