Amarinder accepts SAD's challenge to hold rally at Bathinda

Accepting Sukhbir Singh Badal's challenge, senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh today said his party would hold a public rally "bigger" than that of SAD at the same venue in Bathinda.
"Yes, we will hold a public rally at the same venue (in Bathinda) and it will be bigger than that of yours," Amarinder said, referring to Deputy Chief Minister and SAD leader Sukhbir Badal's statement at a Bathinda rally yesterday that "I want to challenge Congress and Amarinder Singh to organise such a rally here".
"In our rally people will come on their own and shall not be imported from Haryana and Rajasthan. There will be no state sponsorship and misuse of government machinery," he taunted.

At the 'Sadbhavna Rally' in Bathinda, Sukhbir had said, "If Amarinder has courage then he should bring crowd at such scale here (Bathinda). Only then it would be known whether people are with SAD or Congress."
The Congress leader said that by holding a rally at Bathinda yesterday the father-son duo had "desperately tried to retrieve their lost confidence but failed miserably".
"Akalis were still being chased by the angry mobs and their ministers and leaders getting slapped and thrashed," Amarinder said.

The Congress MP from Amritsar also said the duo should desist from their "fanatic and venomous anti-Congress" propaganda devoid of reason or logic and aimed at only vitiating the atmosphere.

"Don't forget we can hit back faster and harder," he said. "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones".
"If anything that came out of the rally yesterday it was your shaken confidence which you are trying to retrieve desperately but have failed repeatedly," he said.
"In your hearts both of you know that most of the people had only made a reluctant attendance," he said.
Amarinder said "former army chief General (retd.) J J
Singh had, while speaking at the war memorial inaugural function yesterday, minced no words in stating that Punjab's place in the country was on a decline".

"The fact that General J J Singh used the platform to convey his anguish at this state of affairs, the falling standards with consequent poor recruitment, was a major embarrassment for the Akalis," he said.
Badal had yesterday inaugurated the Rs 130 crore Punjab State War Heroes Memorial and Museum in Amritsar and said "it was our onerous duty to mitigate the hardships faced by the ex-servicemen and defence personnel forthwith as gratitude towards their outstanding services to defend the security and sovereignty of the country.