CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi alleged on Sunday that the BJP has found its new allies in his predecessor Amarinder Singh and Akali breakaway faction leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa for promoting its "divisive discourse" in the state.
Channi's statement came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the BJP was in talks with Amarinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who is the president of the SAD (Sanyukt), for an alliance for the Punjab assembly polls that are due early next year.
Channi said, "Punjab is one state that rebutted the anti-people and divisive agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019."
"The BJP used Shiromani Akali Dal in its anti-farmer agenda to implement the three black laws that the secular Kisan struggle (farmers agitation) has forced (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi to repeal.
"The SAD had aggressively supported these legislations. Now Amarinder Singh would function as the full-time tool of the BJP to implement its nefarious anti-people designs," he alleged in a statement here.
The chief minister said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) earlier functioned as "the vehicle of the BJP to facilitate its parent organisation RSS to spread its wings in Punjab."
"And this body went to the extent of distorting even the Sikh history and thought and the literature brought out about a decade ago is evidence of that agenda. The Akali Dal never protested," he alleged.
Channi stated that the Akali Dal extended full support to the BJP in its "policies of centralisation and cultural homogenisation" despite being a votary of federalism for decades.
"The interests of Punjab were mortgaged to the BJP by the Akali Dal first under the leadership Parkash Singh Badal who had paved the way for this alliance by extending unconditional support to Atal Bihari Vajpayee to form BJP-led government in 1996 that lasted only thirteen days. Badal had betrayed Punjab and the Punjabis by extending unconditional support. That was a sell out by Badal of Punjab," Channi further alleged.
The SAD led by Sukhbir Singh Badal last year broke ties with the BJP over the farm laws issue.
"Now Amarinder Singh is all set to perform that malicious role which he had been all along playing as the chief minister by coming to the rescue of the Modi government on crucial issues and in promoting anti-people agenda," Channi alleged.
"Amarinder Singh replacing Shiromani Akali Dal as BJP ally was no surprise keeping in view his role to help BJP all along," he added.
After his unceremonious exit as chief minister in September, Amarinder Singh quit the Congress and formed his party Punjab Lok Congress for fighting the upcoming assembly polls.