Dry rivers and the free flow of drugs were the only contributions of the ruling alliance that was trying to sell development agenda to voters in the Moga assembly contest, state Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said here on Sunday.
In the attempt to shake deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal off his election plank, Chaudhary dared him to come our with statistics on projects funded solely by the state government. "All big-ticket projects, be four-lane highways, employment guarantee plan, National Rural Health Mission, foreign direct investment, universal education, or direct cash transfer, were funded by the union government," he added.

Chaudhary mocked at Sukhbir's statement that development was the cornerstone of the policies of the Akali-BJP government. "The alliance has turned Punjab into a land of six rivers," he said, "where five are left without sand, thanks to Bikramjit Singh Majithia and party, and the sixth is of drugs of all kind."

The PYC leader objected to the "Akali ways of forcing elected legislators to switch sides". "Regarding the chief minister's claim that there were no differences in the party over the nomination of Jain, we hope the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now understands the shrewdness of Sukhbir Badal and gets rid of him," he said.

Reacting to the Akali-BJP statement that the Congress delayed the execution of Parliament-attack convict Afzal Guru, Chaudhary asked why the Akalis had kept mum on the orders to hang Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and Rajoana. "They go to the extent of conferring titles of 'living martyr' on people who plunged the state into long period of insurgency," he said.