SAD not property of Badals, says Sukhbir
PATIALA RALLY Says party belongs to the Panth, it could be led by someone outside the Badal clan; Amarinder wants to control gurdwaras: Badal Senior
PATIALA: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is “facing heat” from a section within the party over his style of running the SAD, said the party was not a “property” of the Badal family and somebody else could represent it after a few years.
“The SAD is not a property of the Badal family. It’s a property of elders and the (Sikh) community. Today, I am serving Akali Dal. In next few years, it could be someone else. SAD is a representative of Sikh community,” said Sukhbir addressing party’s ‘Jabar Virodh’ rally in Capt Amarinder Singh’s citadel, Patiala.
The rally was held to highlight the “failures of the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government and the alleged repression let loose on the Akali Dal and BJP leaders and workers by the state government.”
Sukhbir’s statement assumes significance as some senior and Taksali (traditional) Akali leaders were reportedly unhappy with the way he runs the party.
Majha leaders MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, former MP Ratan Singh Ajnala and former minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, who challenged the Sukhbir’s style of functioning, did not attend the rally. Senior SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa also skipped the event, but his son MLA Parminder Dhindsa was present.
Sukhbir said he was upset with the incidents at Bargari in 2015. “Badal Sahib at that time could not sleep for two days. Those who are involved in this heinous crime are demons,” he said. Earlier, addressing the party workers, Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal launched a sharp attack on Amarinder, accusing him of conspiring to take control of Sikh institutions, including the SGPC, and said ‘Sikh Sangat’ would not allow the Congress to succeed in its “nefarious designs”.
Amarinder had on Saturday said that “his government did not want to control the SGPC but wanted the Badals out of it as they had made the religious body their fiefdom.”
“Amarinder’s next move is to take control of gurdwaras and other institutions. His elders had also tried to do so in the past. Sikh Sangat will not tolerate that the control of gurdwaras goes into the hands of representatives of Congress,” said the five-time chief minister.
“Like Britishers had given control of gurdwaras to ‘mahants’, he (Amarinder) wants to hand over the control to ‘mahants’ of Congress. It is a conspiracy to wipe out our religious culture,” he alleged.
Badal said he had never seen such a large conference in his 70-year-long political career. He also lashed out at the Congress for Operation Bluestar.
The former chief minister claimed that Amarinder Singh had to accept the suggestion of his officers not to stop people from participating in the rally or the Akalis could also disrupt Congress’s rallies.