Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today declared that the party will reach out to the people with positive agenda of development and peace for the coming elections. He said, the Akalis would have done better if they had counted their achievements, if any, at their ‘Sarkari Rallies’ than resorted to “Congress and Amarinder bashing”.“Today people of Punjab want peace and development, youth want jobs, farmers want to save their agriculture and trade and industry need to be saved for generating jobs and we are going to work towards that end only”, he said, while addressing a press conference, after paying obeisance at Darbar Sahab and Durgiana Mata Mandir here today. It was his first visit to Amritsar after becoming the PCC president. He also visited the Ram Tirath Temple to pay his obeisance there.
Capt Amarinder also promised to end the Badals’ monopoly over and misuse of religious institutions. “The next SGPC elections will see the end of Badals’ monopoly of misuse of this institution, which was set up after a long struggle and so many sacrifices”, he asserted.The PCC president reiterated that the sacrilege incident was deliberately orchestrated by the Badals as an attempt at “controlled destabilisation” in the state, which eventually went out of their control, to divert public attention from the farmers’ agitation and other failures. “If an independent and impartial inquiry is conducted the buck will stop right at the Badals”, he said, while adding, that is why the party was demanding a probe by a sitting Supreme Court or a High Court judge.He maintained that the Congress will try to reach out to people more with policy and programmes than holding too many big rallies. Asked about his announcement to hold public rally at Bathinda, the PCC president said, he wanted to take over at a public function which could be attended by maximum number of people.
He said, since the space in the PCC office at Chandigarh could not accommodate many people, it was decided to hold the function in open. “Moreover, since Sukhbir Badal had challenged us to hold a similar rally to his, we decided to do it in Bathinda only”, he told reporters.
Responding to the allegations of Congress support to the Sarbat Khalsa, Capt Amarinder categorically stated that he had unambiguously opposed holding of such a congregation. “Because, I don’t agree that just because the Badals and Makkar are controlling these institutions by deceit, we should allow these institutions to be subverted and killed”, he said, clarifying, “while we have to get rid of the Badals, we have to safeguard the sanctity and authority of these institutions”.He reiterated that the Sarbat Khalsa was an angry reaction by the people of Punjab to Badals’ failures and misrule. He said, people were angry that the state had failed to identify and punish the guilty of the sacrilege and instead it had implicated innocent youth and killed peaceful protestors.
Capt Amarinder strongly defended the party leaders including Ramanjit Singh Sikki and Inderjit Singh Zira, who had attended the Sarbat Khalsa, saying that they had attended it as Sikhs. Besides, he added, they had put forth the party’s view and appealed for peace and harmony there. Disputing Sukhbir’s claims that it was an anti-national and pro-Khalistan congregation, he asked, “if it was so why was Simranjit Singh Mann not allowed to speak?”
On the issue of Operation Bluestar and 1984 riots Capt Amarinder said, these were the tragic episodes of history which cannot be written off and are deeply etched in everybody’s memory. At the same time, he added, people of Punjab want to move on. He said, today people need a better life, youth need employment, farmers need to save agriculture and trade and industry needs to be saved. He said, Badals have always raked up these issues to cover up their failures which people are no longer going to buy.The PCC president asserted that the party was completely united in the state. He said, he had already spoken to his predecessor Mr Partap Singh Bajwa and invited him to attend the Bathinda rally, besides seeking his full cooperation, to which he had gladly agreed.“There is complete unity in the party as was proven today with 37 MLAs being present when we paid obeisance at Darbar Sahab and Durgiana Mandir, while others had called up as they were not able to come for different reasons”, he said.Capt Amarinder also reiterated that the Congress was open to an alliance with the secular and likeminded parties.