'Chief minister self contradictory on drug issue'
People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday called upon chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to first remove the confusion in the wake of contradictory statements being issue on the drug issue which is now the biggest evil confronting the state.
People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday called upon chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to first remove the confusion in the wake of contradictory statements being issue on the drug issue which is now the biggest evil confronting the state.
“While Mr. Badal on Friday stated in Gujarat in his address at the Parvasi Bharatiya Sammellan that Punjab was fighting nation’s battle against drugs, the ad inserted by his government the same day took the line that it is a big conspiracy to defame brave Punjabis who have sacrificed the most for the nation, by calling them drug addicts. In case Punjab is not affected by drug invasion, then which war the state government is fighting that Mr. Badal talked about”, he asked.
He also referred to the statememnets of Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal who too had been taking the line that the Punjabis were being portrayed as the ‘nashedi’ as part of the deeper conspiracy. Both father and son should explain as to whose conspiracy it was in the context of the anti-drug campaign to be launched by Akali Dal’s alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party, from Amritsar to be flagged off by party chief Amit Shah on January 23 which would be preceded by a rally a day earlier to be addressed him.
He pointed out Sukhbir himself organised three rallies in the border districts on January 5 against drug smuggling. These rallies also contradicted the conspiracy theory being advanced by the Badals and the state government.
He said with drugs emerging as a major issue following the names of the Akali ministers including the Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia that had surfaced in the drug smuggling racket, the Badals had been rattled and hence the self-contradictory outbursts.
He asserted that it was perhaps for the first time that perceptions of the two alliance partners had been different and that too on the two sensitive issues, that of drugs and the pre-mature release of prisoners.The BJP leadership at the national level has virtually snubbed the Akalis on these issues, he added.