Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today hit out at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of doing "dirty and dual politics" on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.
Addressing a gathering here, the SAD President said by giving statements in "favour" of construction of the canal the Delhi Chief Minister had shown his "anti-Punjab" stand.
Badal alleged that Kejriwal was playing "dirty and dual politics" over the issue and added that he said one thing while on a visit to Punjab and supported Haryana on going back to Delhi.
Criticising Kejriwal for allegedly directing its counsel to side with Haryana on the SYL canal issue in the Supreme Court recently, Badal said the AAP supremo should apologise to the farmers of Punjab for making them believe that he supported their cause.
During a hearing in the apex court recently the Haryana government's counsel had claimed that Punjab government did not have legislative competence to come out with a law to terminate the water sharing agreements, Badal said.
He claimed that immediately afterwards when the court asked Delhi government's counsel to state his stand on the issue, the counsel said he was in agreement with the view of Haryana government and added that the Punjab Act had set a bad precedent.
Badal claimed this proved that the AAP government in Delhi was aligning against Punjab on the issue of SYL canal.
He said by refusing to state its position and agreeing with everything the Haryana counsel had stated, the AAP government had "proved that it had adopted the Haryana government's view point and would now take an anti-Punjab stand on the issue in the Supreme Court".
Dubbing this as an act of "betrayal", the Deputy Chief Minister said it was especially more galling because Kejriwal, during a visit to Punjab at the height of the SYL controversy, had supported the state's stand and even averred that Punjab did not have any water to spare.
