SAD ropes in Congress’s poster boy Budh Singh for youth rally

THE YOUTH AKALI DAL, LED BY FORMER MINISTER BIKRAM SINGH MAJITHIA, ON THURSDAY PAID ₹3.8 LAKH TO BUDH SINGH AFTER HIS NAME DID NOT FIGURE ON GOVERNMENT’S BENEFICIARY LIST

GORAYA (JALANDHAR): The poster boy picked by the Congress for its loan-waiver scheme, became a hero for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), after the party brought him at a first youth rally held in Goraya on Saturday ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Youth Akali Dal (YAD) led by former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, on Thursday, paid ₹3.8 lakh to Budh Singh after his name did not figure in the government’s beneficiary list even as he was the poster boy of the Congress’s loan-waiver scheme ‘Karja kurki khatam, fasal di puri rakam.’

Budh Singh, who was sharing a seat with Majithia, Phillaur MLA Baldev Singh Khaira and other YAD leaders, was also given chance to address the gathering to express gratitude towards the SAD party for waiving off his entire debt.

Majithia, who was here to address youth at the grain market, started his rally from the main chowk in Goraya on a motorcycle.

While addressing the gathering, Budh Singh said, “Despite the fact that I was the first person to fill the loan waiver scheme form in the presence of chief minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh, who visited my home, my name was not figured in the beneficiaries list even after two years. The SAD party has waived off my entire loan.”

Reacting on jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s statement, who demanded enforcement directorate’s (ED’s) intervention to probe source of funds given to Budh Singh by Majithia, the latter claimed that it was youth volunteers’ contribution.

Majithia said, “I thought that Randhawa will express gratitude towards me for clearing the debt of Budh Singh after the Congress government failed to keep its promise, but instead he demanded inquiry.”

“I gave a challenge to Randhawa to inquire the source of money given to Budh Singh but only in one condition that if I come clean, he should resign from politics.”

Taking a dig at smartphones to be distributed to youths as promised by the Captain government before the assembly polls, Majithia said, he got to know that the smartphones, which the government has ordered are Chinese low-quality products and that the phones could burst anytime while charging.

Majithia also took on Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the phony crop loan waiver scheme initiated by him citing that Rahul is also playing politics on this issue. “The Congress president has the time to visit the families of six farmers, who died in Madhya Pradesh two times in the space of one year but does not have time to visit even a single family of the 700 farm suicide victims in Punjab.”

He also condemned Rahul Gandhi for trying to implement a fake loan waiver scheme initiated by him in Punjab and other states.