CHANDIGARH: Ratcheting up the rhetoric against its former ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday termed BJP as the real “tukde tukde gang” that was “splitting the country into pieces” by setting one community against another in its desperation for power.
Accusing the BJP of “pushing patriotic Punjab into communal flames”, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “The BJP first set the Hindus against the Muslims. Now, it is determined to replay that evil game and re-enact the same tragedy in Punjab. It is conspiring to set our peace-loving Hindu brethren against their Sikh brethren with whom they have shared strong bonds of blood for centuries. The BJP wants to replace those bonds of blood with bloodshed.”
Badal further charged the BJP of resorting to “dangerous conspiracies” to sabotage the hard-earned atmosphere of peace and harmony for its petty political goals.
Referring to the farmers’ agitation, the SAD leader said, “The whole country except the BJP gratefully acknowledges the debt we owe to our patriotic farmers and soldiers. The BJP is provoking the people to deny that debt. It believes only in emotionally exploiting the farmers’ sacrifices but remains so ungrateful to them that it is painting them as anti-national. Today it is the farmers. Nobody knows what the BJP tomorrow might say even about soldiers if it suits that party.”