After the ruling SAD took U-turn on its proposed sit-ins on drug smuggling, Congress today said it would stage dharnas in all districts on January 5 demanding dismissal of the Punjab government for allegedly inciting people against the security forces.
"Decision of Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal to hold four dharnas along the sensitive International Border with Pakistan on January 5 would demoralise the security forces," Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa said.
Earlier, the SAD took a U-turn shifting its stand over proposed sit-ins on drug smuggling. The BJP ally had on Sunday announced that it will organise dharnas on the IB on January 5 to "pressurise the BSF" to stop entry of drugs from "Pakistan side".
However, a day later, the SAD said it will "hold three dharnas near the IB check points to create awareness about drugs as well as focus on the need for greater vigilance along the border with Pakistan."
Yesterday, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said that "the proposed protest of the SAD was against the curse of drugs in the state and not against the BSF or any other government agency."
However, the Congress still feels that holding sit-ins near the IB "would lead to public disorder and incite violence at the already tense Indo-Pak border and hence this action was seditious in nature," Bajwa said.
"The party would submit memorandum to every Deputy Commissioner, to be forwarded to the President, demanding dismissal of the SAD-BJP government and imposition of the President's rule in the state," Bajwa said in a release here today.
The deeper design to hold the sit-ins by SAD is to incite violence, disturb law and order with a clear intention to divert the public's attention from the Rs 6,000 crore drugs racket case, he said.
Sukhbir's brother-in-law and the State's Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was recently summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in the case.
