Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has promised to free the SGPC from the Badal stranglehold to prevent the growing abuse of religion and sacrilegious incidents in the state.Addressing a public rally at Budhlada on Tuesday, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president also cornered AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal over reports of his brother-in-law being probed in a corruption case involving fake bills by the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW), saying this showed the true colours of the party leadership.AAP was playing with the emotions of the people of Punjab with their façade of honesty and clean governance promise, but the people would not be taken in by such pretenses, said Captain Amarinder. The people had already rejected AAP, said the PPPC chief, referring to a letter being circulated on the social media in which senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh has reportedly written to Kejriwal, asking him to reduce his electioneering in Punjab and allow local leaders to take over. Though Sanjay Singh subsequently denied the letter, Captain Amarinder later told some mediapersons that the negative intelligence reports on AAP's poll prospects in Punjab, referred to in the letter, appeared to be true, going by the ground realities.
Asserting that there was no difference between Kejriwal and Badal, who he said.were both thieves, Captain Amarinder said the growing misuse of religion in the state was a matter of serious concern. Citing the increasing number of incidents of sacrilege and desecration of holy books in what appeared to be a clear bid by the Akalis to polarize the state on communal lines to get votes, the Punjab Congress president promised to free SGPC from political interference by the Badal-led Akalis. He declared his full support to all those willing to stand up against Badal in the SGPC.Referring to the CIA report on Punjab terrorism, Captain Amarinder held Parkash Singh Badal squarely responsible for creating the ground for the spread of extremism in the state. He also hit out at Badal for running away after the 1984 attack, which triggered unrest in the state, eventually escalating into terrorism.Captain Amarinder reiterated his commitment to giving a total thrashing to Badal on his home turf of Lambi in these assembly polls, saying it was time to get rid of the corrupt and criminal Badals, who had thrown the state into a whirlpool of problems, ranging from unemployment to drugs, industrial and agricultural collapse, economic crisis, mafia rule and more.
Promising to bring the youth of the state out of the quagmire of drugs and unemployment, Captain Amarinder said he would ensure one job per family and help wean the youth away from drugs by giving them employment.“Do you know the `lambu’ who makes chitta?” asked Captain Amarinder, evoking a spontaneous response of `Majithia’ from the crowd. The PPCC president said, amid loud cheers, that Majithia was now known as Chitta, and he would wipe Chitta out of Punjab.He told the crowd he wanted to give youth the chance to lead the state’s progress and had decided to quit the political arena after these polls, which would be his last electoral outing. Captain Amarinder appealed to the people to vote for Congress candidate Ranjit Kaur Bhatti in their own interest and in the interest of the future of Punjab.