Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa today questioned the political loyalty of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal stating the public had the right to know whether he was faithful to his ally BJP or INLD in Haryana.
"Sukhbir had yesterday lambasted the BJP Government in Haryana from an INLD stage at Rohtak. The party has been in alliance with the Akali Dal for decades. Moreover his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal is a Cabinet Minister in the Modi Government at the Centre," Bajwa said.
"One would like to know, what standards of professional and political ethics is he setting by sailing on two boats, that too of the BJP's arch rivals," he said.
The problem seemed to be that Sukhbir Badal wanted to appear in public and he dare not face the people in his own state, not even in his home district of Muktsar. The Akalis can't face the wrath of the people in Punjab," he said.
Perhaps he needed a platform and that was provided to him by his family friends in Haryana. His attack on Manohar Lal Khattar Government was the price that he had to pay for speaking from the INLD stage, he said.
Bajwa wanted to know whether this attack against the BJP was orchestrated out of "frustration" with the alliance partner that has "ditched Punjab on every issue".
Ironically, while Sukhbir was training his guns against Khattar in Rohtak, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee President Manjit Singh GK was slamming BJP in the national capital over justice to the victims of the 1984 violence, Bajwa said.
Referring to Punjab Government's recommendation of CBI probe into the cases of sacrilege, Bajwa stated that his stand on the alleged involvement of state agencies in the incident stands vindicated.
The 'foreign hand' theory was clearly an attempt by the Badals to divert public attention and mislead the people from their own devious designs and incompetency, he said.
The Punjab Congress president asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to ensure the probe is conducted in a time bound manner and monitored by the Supreme Court, else the entire purpose of ensuring justice would stand defeated.
He also questioned the Deputy Chief Minister's claim that the case had been solved and Punjab Police had even arrested two brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh from Panjgrain Khurd.
"The Badals excel at falsely implicating innocent persons to save their own skin. The transfer of DGP Sumedh Singh Saini is an example of how he was made a scapegoat by Sukhbir despite the fact that as Home Minister of the state, political accountability rested with him," Bajwa said.
