Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has termed as shameful and ridiculous Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s tweet on the issue of compensation to the Jodhpur detinues, pointing out that the only compensation paid to them was during his previous tenure in 2006.Reacting strongly to Harsimrat Badal’s tweet that he was sitting on Punjab’s share of the compensation awarded to the detainees by the District Court Amritsar, the Chief Minister termed it a sheer reaction to his announcement that his government was ready to pay the full amount if the Centre did not want to come to the rescue of the detinues.It was obviously a panic reaction on the part of Harsimrat Badal, said Captain Amarinder Singh, asking why the Akalis had failed to do anything for the detinues during the 10 years of their rule. He also demanded to know why Harsimrat Badal herself had failed to take up the issue with the Centre in the past four years, despite being a part of the Union Cabinet.
Had the Akalis ever been serious about the rights of the Sikh community, whose custodians they claim to be, the issue would not have lingered on all these years and it would not have been left to his government to once again come to the relief of the Jodhpur detaineees, said Captain Amarinder Singh.The timing of her tweet, which came on the day when he himself had announced that his government was prepared to take on the total liability of the compensation awarded by the court, had exposed the fact that the Akalis were only keen to take some political mileage on the issue.Raising the Panth bogey or exploiting the Sikh sentiment is part of their political scheme of things, said the Chief Minister, warning Harsimrat Badal, as well as Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal, that such divisive and secessionist politics will not help them get their lost footing back in Punjab.They (SAD-BJP) failed to do anything for these detinues in the 10 years of their Punjab rule and Harsimrat was now shedding crocodile tears for them, said Captain Amarinder, condemning her blatant bid to leverage the issue to seize political advantage, possibly with an eye on next year’s Lok Sabha poll.