BJP to corner Capt govt on panel report

Accuses the ruling party of playing with emotive issue to settle political scores with opposition

: The Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to corner Capt Amarinder Singh-led government on the issue of the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report on the sacrilege incidents that rocked Punjab in 2015.

The party’s state executive body that held its meeting in Chandigarh on Thursday passed a resolution in this regard accusing the Congress government of using the Ranjit panel report to play with the “emotive issue” of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib to settle political scores.

“The Congress government is playing into the hands of radicals. The Ranjit panel report has been prepared to settle political scores rather than punishing the culprits of sacrilege. The BJP also wants exemplary punishment to the culprits but the aim of this government is to make radicals happy,” read the resolution presented by former state BJP chief Kamal Sharma.

Debating the resolution, the BJP leaders also condemned repeated meetings between Congress ministers and radical leaders, saying such acts of the ruling party have only strengthened such elements who don’t want to see peace in Punjab.

“By shaking hands with the radicals, the Congress is playing with fire and is only repeating its earlier mistakes when it made attempts to woo pro-Khalistan hardliners and the state suffered,” reads the resolution which was seconded by Union minister of state Vijay Sampla and party’s national secretary Tarun Chugh.

According to a senior party functionary, the BJP has asked its leaders to expose the Congress government on the panel report at the grassroots level.

The party’s move to project the Congress government flirting with Sikh radicals is a wellthought move, said a BJP leader as the party wants to get back its core Hindu vote bank which in the 2017 assembly polls overwhelmingly backed the Congress.

“The party must expose the radical leaders sitting on dharna at Bargari as most of them have a controversial past. Leave aside the Hindu community, even a large section of Sikhs also doesn’t like hardliners like Dhyan Singh Mand and Bajlit Singh Daduwal who are leading the Bargari sit-in,” said another senior leader.

National general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal presided over the state executive meeting in which the party finalised its strategy for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.