Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Saturday slammed chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the region by reverting to morcha politics on the issue of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Act.
It seemed Badal had not learnt any lesson from the more-than-a-decade-long turbulence in which the border state was pushed into during which thousands of people were killed, said Bajwa.
Reacting strongly to the decision taken at the core committee meeting of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in which it was decided to organise a Panthic convention at the Golden Temple on July 27 when the launching of the morcha would be announced, he attacked Badal for exploiting the shrine again for vested political interests.
Bajwa asserted that Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had only responded to the aspirations of the Sikhs from his state who for years had been demanding their right to manage their shrines. This demand had nothing to do with the Congress.
"Badal has been advocating a federal set-up for years and now he himself is objecting to the autonomy sought by the Haryana Sikhs. It is clear that Badal has never been sincere to any of the demands of his party. Now he is blaming Sonia Gandhi and Hooda for this so-called interference in the religious demands of Sikhs. He deliberately overlooks the fact that it is the demand voiced by Sikhs in Haryana," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Badal has been advocating a federal set-up for years and now he himself is objecting to the autonomy sought by the Haryana Sikhs. It is clear that Badal has never been sincere to any of the demands of his party. Now he is blaming Sonia Gandhi and Hooda for this so-called interference in the religious demands of Sikhs. He deliberately overlooks the fact that it is the demand voiced by Sikhs in Haryana," he added.
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