Capt colluded with BJP even as Cong CM: Harsimrat
Harsimrat claimed that Capt and the other disgruntled Akali factions might join hands, but they would only end up serving as the B-team of the BJP.
Jalandhar Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Bathinda MP and former Union cabinet minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal alleged on Wednesday that former Punjab chief minister (CM) Capt Amarinder Singh had been in a secret alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), even during his tenure as the state CM, with the announcement of a new political outfit on Tuesday.
“The cat is now out of the bag. Capt Amarinder had been in a secret pact with the BJP for the past five years, when he was the Punjab CM. Now, the new political outfit will also possibly have an alliance with the BJP,” Harsimrat said, addressing a press conference at the house of former MLA, Jagbir Singh Brar, the SAD candidate for next year’s assembly polls from Jalandhar Cantt.
She added “Capt Amarinder back-stabbed Punjab as he got the three farm laws passed by colluding with the BJP, in a secret understanding. He was a member of the committee which proposed the three black farm laws since 2019.”
Harsimrat also addressed a meeting of workers in Jalandhar Cantt and Central constituencies and visited the Valmiki Mandir, on account of Valmiki Jayanti. She claimed that the BJP had also supported Amarinder in the 2017 assembly polls.
On the possibility of Capt Amarinder allying with Akali factions like those of Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and others, Harsimrat said, “The Capt is betraying the Congress and Punjab. He and the rebel Akalis might come together and act as a B-team of the BJP. People will identify and punish them.”
On any possibility of the SAD allying with Capt Amarinder, Harsimrat said, “This is out the question. Though I am not the SAD president, but we will never have an alliance with somebody who has back-stabbed Punjab, aligned with a party that has gone out of the way to finish the state’s agriculture and defamed the Sikh community.”
“We have already broken a decade-old alliance with the BJP on the Punjab issue and for farmers’ welfare. It did not remain the same alliance that was stitched together by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal for the betterment and communal harmony of Punjab. Today, the alliance had turned into one where complete dictatorship prevailed,” she said.
On the extension of BSF jurisdiction in Punjab, she said Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had literally signed-away half of Punjab to the Centre, with the writ of the security force now extending up to 50km inside the state from the border.
On the lynching of a farm labourer, accused of sacrilege, at the Singhu border, Harsimrat said the SAD strongly condemned any incident of sacrilege. However, in this case a thorough probe was warranted after news facts had emerged in the case.
MODI TRYING TO STOP AAP: CHADHA
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab affairs co-in-charge and national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making every effort to prevent the party from forming its government in Punjab. Commenting on former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s announcement to float his own new party, Chadha said that while the BJP, SAD and the Congress were failing to stop the AAP from forming a government in Punjab, Modi had fielded Capt Amarinder through a fourth party to stop it. “In 2017 also, the BJP and the Akali Dal Badal had given all the votes of their workers to the Congress party to stop the AAP,” he claimed in a statement.