CHANDIGARH: In a stinging response to Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s latest tirade against his government, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday reminded the Akali leader that it was her own Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) regime that had shamelessly and willfully heaped humiliation on the Akal Takht Jathedar. Amarinder said this was in sharp contrast to his government, which has always treated the Sikh temporal seat with exemplary respect.
Singh said that for ten years, the Akalis, including Harsimrat, had been drunk on power, sparing neither the Akal Takht nor the people of Punjab from their tyrannical control.
“Everyone knows how you (Akalis) maliciously ill-treated Akal Takht Jathedars, out of sheer arrogance, and continue to abuse the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) by dictating terms to them,” Amarinder said, reacting to Harsimrat’s allegations against his government over the issue of joint celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary.
“She has no scruples, none of the Akalis have,” Singh said, pointing out that while Harsimrat was singing praises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, her husband, Sukhbir Singh Badal, was going around appealing for forfeiture of the BJP candidates’ deposits in the campaign for the Haryana elections.
Singh did not hold back, saying that the Akalis double standards had long been exposed to the people of Punjab, who have rejected the Akali leadership time and again, since their rout in the 2017 Assembly polls in the state.
Singh said that he had been personally engaging with the SGPC for joint
celebration of the 550th Prakash Purb, as befitting of the occasion.