Rejecting chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s denials about his role in the sacrilege incidents, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday challenged him to include the role of police in the terms of reference in the CBI inquiry to reach the ultimate source of trouble.
“The moment the CBI questions the cops who fired at the peaceful protesters, the whole truth will unfold and the buck will stop at Badal only,” the state Congress president reiterated, claiming that the whole incident had been conceived by the Badals with a clear motive of “controlled destabilisation” in the state to divert public attention from its multiple failures, especially those regarding farmers’ agitation and the youth unrest.
In a press statement issued here on Saturday, the former chief minister took a jibe at Badal for claiming that Simranjit Singh Mann was related to him, so he (Mann) was his close aide, saying, “By that standard Manpreet Badal is more closely related to you than Mann is to me. Does that mean Manpreet is a closer aide to you?”
Ridiculing Badal’s claims that he had turned religious at the fag-end of his life, he remarked, “At least I have instilled fear of God in you that you have started praying; but let me tell you, it is too late for you to repent as your hands are stained with the blood of innocent people whom you instigated to violence and got killed, besides getting thousands killed at their hands, while you yourself hid in the state rest houses under the pretext of being arrested.”
{{/usCountry}}Ridiculing Badal’s claims that he had turned religious at the fag-end of his life, he remarked, “At least I have instilled fear of God in you that you have started praying; but let me tell you, it is too late for you to repent as your hands are stained with the blood of innocent people whom you instigated to violence and got killed, besides getting thousands killed at their hands, while you yourself hid in the state rest houses under the pretext of being arrested.”
{{/usCountry}}Referring to his charges that AAP convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur was also close to him, Amarinder told Badal, “Dementia has got better of you in your advanced age as Chhotepur left Congress way back in 2012 and we have never talked to each other since.”