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In Bathinda, Amarinder blames Badal for terrorism, Operation Bluestar
Amid the disclosure in United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified documents that Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal sided with Sikh extremists after the Operation Bluestar, state Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday launched a twin-attack on the CM, blaming him for helping militants and attack on the Golden Temple.
Amid the disclosure in United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified documents that Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal sided with Sikh extremists after the Operation Bluestar, state Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday launched a twin-attack on the CM, blaming him for helping militants and attack on the Golden Temple.
Addressing a gathering in support of Congress candidate from Bathinda Rural constituency, Harvinder Singh Laddi, at Kotshamir, Captain Amarinder said Badal was responsible for thousands of innocent people killed by the terrorists. He referred to the CIA report, as reported in Hindustan Times, to point out that Badal had always been working “to promote his personal agenda by colluding with the Sikh extremists.
Also read | CIA files: Parkash Singh Badal sided with Sikh extremists after Op Bluestar
Blaming Badal for the attack on the Golden Temple, Amarinder said, “In response to an invite by Harchand Singh Longowal to Badal, Surjit Singh Barnala and Gurcharan Singh Tohra for discussion a day before the attack on the Golden Temple, Badal didn’t turn up and ran away. Badal had earlier swore at the Akal Takht that he will stop the army at any cost, even if it meant sacrificing his life. But he ran away when the crisis erupted,” said Amarinder. Badal even conveyed to Delhi that things were not in their control and they could do whatever they wanted, Capt said.
Reiterating his promise to get all the recent incidents of sacrilege in the state investigated once Congress forms government in Punjab. “In the 1980s when Akali Dal was losing the people’s faith, Badal had played the communal card to promote his political and electoral interests and recent incidents of sacrilege appeared to be an attempt by the Akalis to create similar communal polarisation ahead of the assembly polls. I will put Badal in jail if found guilty of a role in these incidents,” said Amarinder.
Dubbing both Badal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal as ‘slimy’ individuals, Amarinder criticised presence of outsiders in Punjab elections.
He said Punjabis were deliberately being kept out by Kejriwal’s party to alienate them from the poll process as the AAP leader did not trust Punjabis and had no interest in their welfare.
