The Punjab Congress has charged the Badal government with trying to polarize the state on communal lines by instigating sacrilegious attacks ahead of the Assembly elections.Coming down heavily on the Akali government for failing to prevent incidents of desecration of the Sikh holy book, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) leaders Ravneet Singh, Gurdev Lapran and Gurmail Pehalwan said the discovery of torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib in Chandan Nagar area of Ludhiana clearly suggested a conspiracy to incite communal tension.Alleging a nexus between the Badal government and miscreants engaged in such acts of destabilizing the state, the PPCC leaders said there was a clear pattern in such incidents, which had witnessed a major spike in recent months, as elections in Punjab were drawing closer.They called upon the Union Home Ministry to take up the matter at the highest levels and order an independent probe to get at the root of such sacrilegious acts. The PPCC leaders demanded immediate arrest and stringent action against the culprits to send out a strong message to miscreants, acting at the behest of Akali leaders, that such acts would not be tolerated.
In a statement, the Punjab Congress leaders lauded the Sikh community for the exemplary patience shown in the wake of the latest incident and said it was appreciable that the incident did not trigger any violent protests. This, however, did not mean that the police and the state administration could be allowed to take the incident lightly, they added, warning that such incidents, if allowed to continue unabated, could lead to violence and even revival of terrorism in the poll-bound state.Referring to the spate of similar incidents of sacrilege reported from different parts of the state in recent months, the PPCC leaders said there was obviously a mischievous design behind these, aimed at disturbing peace and destabilizing the state in view of the elections.A clear pattern seemed to be emerging in these incidents, with the government’s failure to prevent their recurrence suggesting a major conspiracy. These provocative and seditious attacks on the Sikh holy book need to be investigated and all possible steps taken to prevent them from happening again if the social fabric of Punjab was to be protected, they added.