Badal leads delegation to guv: ‘Oust Sidhu, book wife’

CHANDIGARH: Describing the train accident in Amritsar on October 19 as “a man-made tragedy of unprecedented magnitude”, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday accused the Punjab government of non-seriousness, citing CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s Israel visit.

“I find it insensitive that chief minister chose to leave the state and proceeded on an avoidable foreign trip. I would have cancelled the trip and preferred to spend time with people in grief,” Badal said while talking to mediapersons after a delegation of the SAD-BJP met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, seeking his intervention for justice to the victims and punishment to those guilty of lapses in the Amritsar train tragedy.

The former CM led a joint SAD-BJP delegation, also comprising SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP state chief Shwait Malik, to submit a memorandum to the governor. He said the tragedy could have been avoided had the local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his spouse Navjot Kaur Sidhu displayed sense of responsibility by refusing to get associated with an event that didn’t have due permissions.

He demanded sacking of Navjot Singh Sidhu from the cabinet, and registration of criminal cases against his wife Navjot Kaur, event’s organiser Saurabh Madan ‘Mithu’ and others. The land where the event was organised, Badal said, belonged to the local bodies department of which Navjot Singh Sidhu is the minister. “They misused their clout in the government for publicity, which led to the loss of 62 lives,” he said.

The former CM said the tragedy could have been averted had the climax of the function not been delayed in wait of the VIPs.

Badal said the conduct of Navjot Kaur after the tragedy was more shocking. “It was her duty to stay at the site of a tragedy which she had herself caused to happen,” said the former CM.

The delegation submitted a memorandum to the governor, demanding local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu‘s ouster from the cabinet and registration of criminal case against Sidhu, his wife Navjot Kaur and chief organiser of the event. They also demanded an inquiry by a sitting Punjab and Haryana High Court judge.

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SANJEEV SHARMA/HT ■ (From left) Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former CM Parkash Singh Badal, BJP state president Shwait Malik, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema and others after meeting Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore in Chandigarh on Tuesday.