Akali Dal accuses Cong of teaming up with Sirsa dera
CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday said the Congress party has teamed up with Dera Sacha Sauda to take on the SAD in the 2022 assembly elections, in exchange of promise to absolve the Sirsabased sect of sacrilege crimes.
Addressing a press conference here, SAD leaders Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Sikander Singh Maluka said the Congress government was in the process of weakening the sacrilege case under an understanding with the dera. “The Congress first pressured the dera and is now using it as a political tool against the SAD. However, by doing so, they have exposed themselves,” the SAD leaders said.
“We would not allow the Congress party to do dirty politics on the issue of sacrilege of Guru
Granth Sahib. The prime accused in the sacrilege case was murdered in jail because the Congress government did not want the truth to come out. The family of Behbal Kalan police firing case prime witness, who died by suicide, had held a Congress minister and the Faridkot Congress legislator responsible for his death. All this points to that the hands of Congress party are dirty,” the leaders said.
Referring to media interactions by state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and dera supporter Veerpal Kaur held in tandem, Akali MP Bhunder said Jakhar tried to cover up the failures of his government by launching a false and malicious campaign against the SAD, while Veerpal tried to spread a canard which was refuted by the very police officer she credited it to. “It seems Veerpal is also a Congress mole and playing to the tunes of the Congress party,” he said, adding that the party will take a legal recourse.
Grewal said the Congress party was trying to cover up its failures and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had already performed ‘ardas’ that “nothing should remain” of those who had indulged in the acts of sacrilege as well as of those who were behind it.
He also made it clear that the SAD didn’t take the support of the dera in the 2017 assembly elections.