‘SAD should rename Patiala event as Sukhbir bachao rally’

CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab Vidhan Sahba deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh has said former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal should name the Patiala rally of the party scheduled on Sunday as ‘Sukhbir Bachao rally’.

“I wonder how Badal senior and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal are moving in Punjab, unabashedly, from town to town to collect people for their so-called anti-oppression rally in Patiala. It is clear, beyond any doubt, that the senior Badal at his ripe age is undertaking a perilous journey for the political survival of his son and this entire expedition is aimed to save the beleaguered leadership of his son Sukhbir,” said Devinder in a release.

He charged that by misusing his official clout, Badal forcibly managed to get the post of the SAD chief for Sukhbir by sidelining trustworthy, traditional and genuine senior leadership of the party. “This has not worked for the party at all,” he added.

“The former CM cleverly proffered to stay away from the Punjab assembly’s important session, when Justice Ranjit Singh Commission’s report was being discussed,” he said.

He added, “How desperately now, he is not even missing meetings of small gatherings of 20-25 people. That too, not for the sake of the panth or for Punjab, but he is toiling in the heat, only to save his son from the uncontrolled rebellion within the SAD rank and file and the terrible anger of Sikh masses against the Badals.”

He claimed that even the Congress rally at Lambi had no ‘reasonable justification’.

The senior Badal at his ripe age is undertaking a perilous journey...and this expedition is aimed to save the beleaguered leadership of his son Sukhbir. BIR DEVINDER SINGH, former Punjab Vidhan Sahba deputy speaker