Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa has said the Congress workers would not allow Modi to enter Punjab on December 21.
The Congress chief also warned Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal that soon the Congress workers would start an agitation against the SAD-BJP alliance government for 'looting' the state by 'notorious' ways.
Addressing a gathering at Nihal Singh Wala during his mass-contact programme on Sunday, Bajwa said if Narendra Modi tried to enter Punjab, the Congress workers will show him black flags because Modi is 'directly' responsible for filing a review petition in the Supreme Court against the Sikh farmers who have been doing agriculture in Gujarat for the past 50 years. "Due to this attitude, Modi's face came forward as 'anti-farmer' leader, therefore, how the Congress can bear Modi's presence in agrarian state of Punjab," Bajwa said.
"The Congress leaders and workers have scarified their lives for eliminating terrorism from Punjab and now the party workers will start a stir to uproot 'Akali terrorism' from Punjab, which is headed by drug smugglers allegedly at the behest of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal," Bajwa further alleged.
Bajwa said the new Atta-Dal scheme of the SAD-BJP government was nothing but a poor clone of the UPA's food security programme. "Badal will not be allowed to play with the centrally-sponsored schemes anymore and the Congress will scuttle all such attempts in future. The credit for providing subsidised food to poor people goes to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," said Bajwa.
{{/usCountry}}Bajwa said the new Atta-Dal scheme of the SAD-BJP government was nothing but a poor clone of the UPA's food security programme. "Badal will not be allowed to play with the centrally-sponsored schemes anymore and the Congress will scuttle all such attempts in future. The credit for providing subsidised food to poor people goes to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," said Bajwa.
{{/usCountry}}He flayed the SAD-BJP government for wasting public funds on futile exercises like investor's summit being held at SAS Nagar and NRI Sammelans. "The SAD-BJP government has hired an American firm Apco that had earlier promoted the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summit, thus wasting millions of rupees collected by imposing heavy taxes on people of the state," he said.
Former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said the SAD-BJP government was like a misguided missile and it would ruin Punjab. She asked the people to root out communal alliance in the coming Lok Sabha polls. "The Badal family is using the opportunity given to them by people for governance to beef up their businesses and amass wealth. The BJP was dancing to the tunes of the SAD for petty interests and ignoring the interests of urban people," Bhattal said.
Among those who addressed the gathering included Gurpreet Singh Kangar, vice-president, PPCC; former minister Darshan Singh Brar; Malti Thapar, president, Punjab Mahila Congress; SGPC member Sukhjit Singh Kaka Lohgarh, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Manjit Singh Maan, former president, Youth Congress; and MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring besides others.