CM claiming Gandhis’ innocence on ’84 riots to save chair: Sukhbir

FEROZEPUR:SHIROMANI Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has backstabbed the Sikh community by claiming innocence of the Gandhi family on the 1984 anti-sikh riots just to save his chair.

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of a meeting with party workers in Ferozepur, the SAD chief said, “Capt Amarinder is indulging in a blatant sycophancy of the Gandhi family. It’s astonishing that he is still claiming that the Gandhi family and the Congress were not involved in the 1984 genocide even as the Delhi high court has ruled otherwise. While sentencing Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment, the court said he had escaped the law for 34 years due to patronage from his political masters.”

“He at least should have read the court judgement before making statements to please the Gandhis to save his chair. But by doing so, he has turned against Punjabis,” he added.

Asking Congress president Rahul Gandhi to come clean on the issue rather than fielding leaders like Amarinder to defend his family, Sukhbir said the Gandhi scion should tell when will he expel Jagdish Tytler and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath from the party.

He also claimed to have received complaints from Akali workers from Ferozepur district that the Congress MLAS were openly indulging in sand mining and liquor smuggling. The Congress leaders had already caused a loss of ₹600 crore to the excise department by indulging in liquor smuggling, he claimed.

Commenting on the upcoming panchayat polls, the SAD chief said the state election commission has become non-existent. “The poll panel has failed to conduct the panchayat elections in a free and fair manner,” he said.