The Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh said here today that despite the best efforts of Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) to falsely implicate the previous SAD-BJP Government on the issue of sacrilege of the most sacred Shri Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj in the state, the former judge had failed totally and miserably to indict either the previous govt or any of its leaders on any ground . Mr Badal dared Captain Amarinder Singh government to identify even a single issue or case on which the Commission’s report had been able to indict the SAD- BJP government. “All that the report has succeeded in making are indirect insinuations, assumptions and guesses. This is the most hazy, vague and un-judicial report ever supposedly authored by a former judge. “Mr Badal also said that the same report had in fact “commended” the government machinery, including the senior police officer R S Khatra, for their honest and laborious efforts to unearth the truth in the sacrilege cases. Speaking to media persons after the parallel session held by the SAD-BJP legislators in the Vidhan Sabha lounge, Mr Badal said that the report had on contrary lauded the handling of the sacrilege cases by the police and and also the work done by the SIT appointed by the previous government with senior police officer R S Khatra as its head. The commission had in fact praised Mr khatra for “working laboriously to bring out the truth,. This clearly shows the commission endorsed the handling of the case by the previous government.
Mr Badal said that this was despite the fact that the Congress government and the Sarkari Commission headed by Justice (Retd) Ranjit Singh had tried their best to unearth or invent something or the other by which they could link the SAD-BJP government with the tragic incidents of sacrilege. Mr Badal said that the conspiracy hatched by the congress party and its government with the Commission was meant merely to defame the SAD among the Sikh masses. The real target is to render the Sikh community leaderless.Mr Badal said that the report was just a cheap drama “written, produced, directed and choreographed by Captain Amarinder Singh , Sukhjinder Randhawa , Tripat Ranjider Singh Bajwa, Baljit Singh Daduwal and their evening-pal Justice Ranjit Singh who was used merely for the sake of his signatures (ghuggi maaran layee vartia giya) in order to give a semblance of legal legitimacy to the report. But because the details of the conspiracy behind the report had been exposed and published in the media with complete details and data, the falsehood behind the report now stands fully exposed.” Mr. Badal also said that the denial of democratic right to speech to SAD-BJP by the Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha today was a broad daylight murder of democracy. Mr Badal said that the SAD BJP did not boycott the session but were gagged by the speaker’s order of a just 14-minute time to us to present our full case with all details . “We were forced to hold a parallel session as we were denied the right to free speech inside the House. We wanted to discuss the report of the Commission and to blow it to pieces in the House. We had enough material to do that .
But sensing this and knowing that the government had been badly cornered by the sensational disclosures of conspiracy behind the Commission’s report, the Speaker deliberately resorted to dictatorial methods and clamped down a ban on our right to speech by declaring that the SAD would be allowed to speak for only 14 minutes. This did not amount to even one minute per MLA of the party. “The speaker’s action was reminiscent of the days of the Emergency imposed by Mrs Indira Gandhi . We had to boycott the session and hold a parallel session because the speaker allowed just 14 minutes the party while allowing almost 2 hours to the ruling party. The Speaker tried to save the ruling party and its allies from ending up with egg on their faces. The only way he ( the speaker) could save them was by denying the SAD and the BJP the necessary time to discuss the report. And he tried to do just that . Still he failed to save the Congress and its Sarkari Report which has been fully exposed now. ” Mr Badal said that Justice (Retd.) Ranjit Singh report was based on mere assumptions, guess-work and its conclusions were based on undisclosed sources. “ No wonder then that the judge was forced to use his imagination liberally to arrive at conclusions not supported by the evidence quoted in the report. The only thing that the judge has been able to insinuate against the former Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal is that he was still awake up to 2.00 am on the day when situation in Bargari was getting tense.“Little does the judge know how profoundly Mr Badal was disturbed by the events. The judge evaluates Mr Badal by the standards of Captain Amarinder Singh who would have been fast asleep at that time without bothering about what was happening in his state. Justice Ranjit singh has admitted in his report that the police had informed him that Mr Badal’s directions to them were that the situation must be handled with sensitivity and the no one responsible for sacrilege should be spared, no matter how high he was.” Said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal .
Earlier, the SAD- BJP legislators held a parallel “session “ of the House on the precincts of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Addressing the parallel House, former Cabinet minister and senior Akali elader Bikram Singh Majithia lashed out at the “blasphemous and outrageous utterances of congressmen against the SAD-BJP government, especially against the former Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal. He also came down strongly against the speaker for the denial fo democratic right to speech to the SAD-BJP legislators on the floors of the house.Mr Majithia said that faced with the Speaker’s undemocratic and draconian measure, the SAD-BJP were left with no alternative but to hold a parallel session in the Vidhan Sabha complex before the media so that we could have our full say. “Fairness demanded that the SAD-BJP and the Congress should have been allowed equal time. In fact, the Government had already used its share as it had already submitted the report which was tabled by it on the table of the House. That report was virtually the government’s version of the whole debate. It was the turn of the SAD-BJP to reply to the allegations contained in that report. That chance was denied to us by the speaker,” said Mr Majithia. He said that only a non-believer could indulge in the filthy language indulged in byCongress leaders that too while the issue in question pertained to the sacred Shri Guru Granth Sahib.
The Akali leader said that the disclosures of the conspiratorial mode of functioning of Justice Ranjit Singh today stood fully exposed before the people of Punjab.Lashing out against the Congress leaders for pretending to be more Sikhs today that the devout Akalis, mr Majithia said, “This is a case of devil citing scriptures for his purpose. The Congress hand was besmirched with the blood of thousands of innocent Sikhs. It was a party which was responsible for the most heinous and tragic army assault on Shri Harmandar Sahib and the descrationa dn destruction of the holy Sri Akal Takhat Sahib. They not only committed sacrilege against Guru Granth Sahib but actually consigned its sacred “saroops” to the unholy flames during the Operation Bluestar in Harmandar and 32 other Sikh shrines. Today, they have the cheek to pretend to be hurt by Sikh issues while the fact is that they spend their colourful and luxurious evenings criticizing the others for upholding the Sikh values in Politics,” said Mr Majithia Mr Majithia said that while the announcement of financial assistance of Rs One crore to the victims of the Bargari incident was a positive step , but he damneded that the same assistance should also have been simultaneously announced for the victims of the army assault ordered by the Congress government of late PM Indira Gandhi on Shri Harmandar Sahib and those thousands of innocents who were martyred on orders of her son, late PM Rajiv Gandhi on the streets of Delhi in November 1984 genocide as well as to the martyrs from the army and to farmers who committed suicide. The parallel session was presided over by Shri Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal as speaker. Others who participated in the parallel debate included Bikram Singh Majithia, Harinderpal Chandumajra,Gurpartap Wadala,Pawan Kumar Teenu,Baldev Khaira,Arun Narang,Dr.Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi,Parkash Chand Garg, Mr N K Sharma.