 "Even 'shadow' of Cong, AAP is bad for Punjab: Parkash Singh Badal")
Terming the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party as "anti-Punjab", Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday said even the shadow of these parties was bad for the state.
Addressing a political gathering on the occasion of the Chapaar fair, the chief minister said both these parties were inimical to the interests of the state and its people.
He alleged that these parties don't have any sympathy for the people of Punjab and were hostile to the interests of the state and cautioned the people against the "nefarious designs" of these parties.
The CM said the upcoming Assembly polls would be "decisive as it would make or break the future of Punjab" and the fight was between SAD and "enemies of the state" like AAP and Congress.
If "pro-people force" like the SAD-BJP alliance was voted to power again, the state's development would get a major fillip, he said, adding if anti-Punjab forces, like Congress and AAP, get a chance the situation would turn for the worse.
Badal asked the people to be cautious during the election as they would have to choose between enemies and friends of the state.
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The Congress has "irrelevantly meddled" in the social, political, economic and even religious affairs of the state, he alleged.
He said the erstwhile Congress governments at the Centre had "deliberately denied" the state its capital Chandigarh and even its legitimate share in river waters.
"No sincere Punjabi can ever forgive the Congress for its sins like Operation Blue Star and killing of innocents in 1984 anti-Sikh carnage," he alleged.
"The Congress is perpetrator of a deep rooted conspiracy to deprive the state of its waters, by constructing the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. This canal was aimed at ruining the state by snatching its only available natural resource," he claimed.
Coming down heavily on AAP, the CM said, "The affidavit submitted by the Arvind Kejriwal government in Supreme Court on the SYL issue has exposed AAP's anti-Punjab mindset."
"Kejriwal hails from Haryana, so he is naturally inclined towards his native state. The anti-Punjab stand taken by his government in the apex court has proved it," he stated.
Describing AAP a "house of cards", he said it was likely to collapse before the state Assembly polls.
"AAP's leadership neither has character nor ideology. Their sole motive is to come in power and plunder the state," he alleged.