Badal plays emotional card as Capt’s coronation takes centre stage - Hindustan Times
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Badal plays emotional card as Capt’s coronation takes centre stage

HindustanTimes | By, Moga
Nov 28, 2015 11:22 PM IST

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday tried to play the emotional card at Shiromani Akali Dal’s ‘Sadbhawna rally’ at Moga even as the entire event turned out to be an anti-Amarinder Singh show.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday tried to play the emotional card at Shiromani Akali Dal’s ‘Sadbhawna rally’ at Moga even as the entire event turned out to be an anti-Amarinder Singh show.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal(HT Photo)
Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal(HT Photo)

As the entire Akali leadership took turns to run down Captain’s coronation as Punjab Congress president ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, Badal told the gathering that the SAD was their ‘mother party’.

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“Do you want to kill your ‘maa’ (mother),” he asked in an emotional tone, even reminding the people of the sacrifices made by Akalis in the past.

The chief minister said he had no qualms about apologising to the people of the state over the recent happenings.

“There is no harm in seeking apology from your own people. I will seek apology a thousand times even as the Congress criticises me,” Badal told people who had come from Sangrur, Moga, Barnala, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Ludhiana to attend the rally.

The chief minister recently hit the headlines for seeking an apology at a public meeting in Sarabha in Ludhiana district for the incidents of sacrilege and the following unrest.

“I even ask the Congress to tell me my mistakes. However, at the the same time, I appeal to the Congress not to adopt the divide-and-rule policy that can throw Punjab back into dark days (phase of terrorism),” he said.

Dubbing Captain a “politician who has always played politics of confrontation”, Badal said as a chief minister he had never booked any Congress leader in a false case as Amarinder did in the past.

Sukhbir blasts Capt

Addressing the gathering, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal dared Amarinder to oust the Congressmen who attended the November 10 ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ within 2 days. “Either oust them or admit that Rahul Gandhi had a direct role in organising the congregation of radicals,” Sukhbir said.

Calling Amarinder a spineless leader, the SAD president flayed his appointment as state Congress chief. The Congress has lost e two consecutive elections in 2007 and 2012 under his (Amarinder’s) leadership only, said Sukhbir.

He alleged that the Congress had a hand behind the incidents of sacrilege and also accused the party of “masterminding” the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’.

Attacking Rahul, Sukhbir said: “He is third Gandhi (after Indira and Rajiv) to set Punjab on fire”.

“The Badals are ready to face beheading, but the Congress will not succeed in its conspiracies,” he said. “The Congress has no issue, it is nervous”.

AAP Lambasted

Calling the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as “toppi walea di party (party of people in caps), Sukhbir said: “Half of their leaders are either alcoholic or drug addicts, hope you understand I am talking about whom?” he said, hinting at AAP MP from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann.

BJP marks its PRESENCE

Senior BJP leaders Tarun Chugh from Delhi and Punjab health minister Surjit Kumar Jyani represented the party at the rally, assuring that the Akali-BJP alliance was strong and it would win the 2017 elections as well.

Senior Akali MLA Bibi Upinderjit Kaur, though hailing from Kapurhala in Doaba’ region, was present at the event. She told the gathering masses that those who had organised the congregation of Sikhs in the name of ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ had hurt the sanctity of the Akal Takht and of the SGPC.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    A special correspondent, Prabhjit Singh is the bureau chief at Bathinda. He specialises in investigative stories, with rural reporting being his passion.

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