Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, on Friday challenged Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to visit the families of the Bargari police firing victims like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had done on Thursday.
“Leave it to the people of Punjab to judge who is their enemy, you or the Congress,” he told Badal, advising him to “come out of the obsessive compulsive disorder of seeing the Congress hand in everything that goes wrong”. “The ‘panth’ as well as Punjab has moved on from the phase where Badal could mislead them,” said the former CM, pointing out how Rahul Gandhi had received ‘siropas’ at Takht Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo on Friday and the Bargari gurdwara a day before.
He also referred to the ‘ardas’ (prayer) for peace performed at both places in Rahul’s presence. “Let you or anyone among you dare to visit a gurdwara at these places and risk getting the thrashing of a lifetime,” he dared Badal and his party. Referring to the repeated references to Operation Bluestar by the Akalis as reopening old wounds, Amarinder said Badal was as responsible for it as anyone else. “His mask of ‘Panth Rattan’ has already worn off. I am a witness to the developments that led to Operation Bluestar (army raid on the Golden Temple in 1984 to flush out militants), and Badal cannot escape blame,” he said, challenging Badal to prove him wrong.
“You have lost credibility and the confidence to face the people, so now you resort to lies and falsehood that nobody is prepared to buy,” he told Badal.
{{/usCountry}}“You have lost credibility and the confidence to face the people, so now you resort to lies and falsehood that nobody is prepared to buy,” he told Badal.
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