Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had once again chosen the 'Gandhi family' over the Sikh community by refusing to clarify if he supported the protection given to Sikhs under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
This comes after Captain Amarinder yesterday sent Badal a copy of Adolf Hitler's autobiography 'Mein Kampf' and advised him to read it to understand the "dangerous" implications of the new citizenship law passed.
The SAD is part of the ruling NDA and Sukhbir's wife and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal is a Union Minister in Narendra Modi cabinet.
In a statement, the SAD president said, "I would soon be sending across a bundle of books written by prominent Sikh scholars detailing how the Congress party and its first family had planned and engineered the attack on Sri Harmandar Sahib as well as mass killing of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country."
"I am sure these books will refresh your memory and remove the selective amnesia which has clouded your mind. Please do give the books space in your library and read them. You will never again give inane suggestions to anyone. This gift of books could also force you to have a change of mind and forsake servility towards the Gandhi family and make you more sensitive towards the suffering of your own community," he added.
Badal said that if all this did not help he would recommend Captain Amarinder to go through a story taught in schools - Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja.
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"Probably you would find some affinity with the story seeing which way Punjab is going under your leadership with gangsters and mafia running extortion rackets from jails, farmers committing suicides, youth giving up hope of employment and even the employed agitating for their just dues," he said.
Badal also advised the Chief Minister to come clean and tell Punjabis why he continued to remain in a political party and supported leaders who had sheltered the perpetrators of the 1984 genocide.
"Let me remind you this ethnic cleansing was not conducted against foreigners but members of your own community. It is shocking and downright insensitive of you to make a reference point to 'Mein Kampf' but turn a blind eye to a reference point that is available at your doorstep. One does not have to look as far as Germany to learn about State-sponsored genocide. Despite this, there is not one squeak from you against any of the perpetrators. You have consistently even sheltered the butcher of Delhi - Jagdish Tytler on numerous occasions. How can Punjabis expect you to protect your own?" said Badal.
Telling Captain Amarinder that while he continued with his theatrics for 'political expediency', the SAD would lead by example in keeping with its philosophy of the Guru Sahiban, the secular credential of the party as well as the path shown by the makers of the constitution including Baba B R Ambedkar.
"This was the true moral stand which echoed the philosophy of 'sarbat da bhala' and aimed at helping all persecuted people irrespective of caste, creed or religion," said Badal.