(Also castigates Simranjit S Mann for cosying up to Congress and criticizing Shaheed Bhagat Singh)
Longowal/Sangrur: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the people of this constituency had passed a vote of no-confidence against chief minister Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government by holding widespread protests across the constituency against the chief minister for betraying their interests.
Talking to newsmen at Sunam while addressing public gatherings in favour of joint panthic and SAD-BSP candidate Biba Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana for the Sangrur parliamentary by-poll, the SAD president said “the people have shown the mirror to Bhagwant Mann. Despite huge security arrangements people came out spontaneously to protest against him.
This shows Bhagwant Mann now cannot even visit his own erstwhile constituency without a police cordon”. Asserting that all this was happening because the chief minister had not even cared to conduct a thanksgiving tour of his constituency or address the grievances of people since the last three months, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the propaganda created in Chandigarh through a multi-crore advertisement campaign is being exposed in the field with massive protests”.
He said people were also angry that the chief minister had even failed to prevail upon Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to sign the release orders of Prof Dewinderpal Singh Bhullar even after the case of the latter’s release had been cleared by the officialdom. When asked, Mr Badal also castigated SAD (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann for speaking out in favour of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
“It seems Mr Mann has developed a new found love for the Congress party which was responsible for attacking Sri Darbar Sahib with tanks and mortars”. He said a little earlier Mr Mann had also spoken out against Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Earlier during his speech at several places including Longowal, Badrukha, Cheema and Sunam, the SAD President delved upon how a senior SAD delegation had urged the SAD (Amritsar) president not to contest the elections and support a joint panthic candidate.
“We even assured Mr Mann that we would support his candidature from the place of his choice in 2024 and that it was important to field a member from the families of Sikh detenues to pave the way for their release. You judge who is at fault?” he told the people at the public meetings.
Speaking about the Sikh detenues , Mr Badal said the former had been swayed by emotions after the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and the subsequent massacre of Sikhs across the country in 1984. He said the Sikh detenues had been awarded life sentences which they had completed but they were still not being freed.
He gave the example of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who had been jailed for 28 years without parole. Speaking about joint panthic candidate Biba Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana, the SAD President said “she is not even a member of the SAD. She has been nominated by the ‘panth’ after deep deliberations following the directive of the Sri Akal Takth Jathedar to field a member from among the families of the Sikh detenues’ ‘.
He said Biba Rajoana was also a victim of police repression with her elder sister and brother being killed and their house being burnt during the period of strife in the State. Those present on the occasion included Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Baldev Singh Mann, Gobind Singh Longowal, Baljit Singh Jalalusma, Hansraj Josan and Rajinder Deepa.
