Ranjit panel report a Congress conspiracy against Badal: SAD

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday said the party will unitedly fight the conspiracy “hatched by the Congress in league with radical groups” to belittle the contribution of SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal towards the Sikh Panth as well as Punjab.

Addressing a press conference, senior party leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Tota Singh and Sewa Singh Sekhwan said the Congress was trying to “tarnish the image of the longest serving legislator and 5-time CM.”

“We will take this challenge head on by holding statewide protests in all 117 assembly constituencies tomorrow (Sunday),” they said.

“Instead of pointing fingers at a personality who has been jailed for 16 years while serving the people of the state, CM Capt Amarinder Singh should tell why he was talking with the Centre on the eve of Operation Bluestar,” they added.

Regarding the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report, they said the panel is “biased and politicised”. They added that it has failed to indict Badal “despite its best attempts”.

The SAD leaders said the retired judge had noted down in his report that the state police informed him that after the sacrilege incidents, Badal had given directions that the protests be handled with sensitivity and that no one responsible for the sacrilege should be spared. They asserted that Amarinder had misled the Vidhan Sabha by stating that SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal did not visit the families of the two youths killed in the Behbal Kalan firing incident.