Will surrender Padma Shri if precondition to put Badals, Saini in jail: Phoolka

The former AAP MLA also insisted that Capt Amarinder Singh clear his stand on whether he thinks Badals and Saini were responsible for the sacrilege or not.

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Former MLA of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) HS Phoolka, on Monday, said that if it is a precondition placed by Congress government for arrest of Badals and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, he would gladly surrender his Padma Shri award. Phoolka also insisted that Capt. Amarinder Singh clear his stand on whether he thinks Badals and Saini were responsible for the sacrilege or not.

Phoolka was responding to four Punjab cabinet ministers—Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukbinder Singh Sarkaria and Gurpreet Singh Kangar—who, on Sunday, had slammed Phoolka for asking all MLAs who had raised the Bargari issue in the state assembly to resign. The ministers had said if Phoolka was concerned, he should have returned the Padma Shri awarded to him by NDA government, which had pressurised the central bureau of investigation (CBI) into filing a closure report in Bargari case.

“I am shocked over the demand by four ministers. I was bestowed the honour for taking cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and sending Sajjan Kumar to jail,” said Phoolka, adding there was a time when the government of those days conspired to kill Sikhs, and the present government had awarded him for taking up the case.

“Congress knows that after Sajjan Kumar, next in line are chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath and former union minister Jagdish Tytler. They are worried and wish to scuttle the case by taking pleas,” he said.

“I will return my Padma Shri award if it is a precondition for sending the Badals and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini to jail in sacrilege case,” said Phoolka.

He also said he has nothing against the four ministers as they are his friends, and he had been helping them in the pass resolutions, such as SGPC elections, in the Vidhan Sabha.