Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party for courting the radicals in Punjab for political opportunism. “It is a classic case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds”, he remarked about BJP pointing out while it claims itself to be a nationalistic party, but does not mind sharing stage with the radicals and extremists.
Reacting to the presence of a senior BJP Maharashtra leader at a programme in Chowk Mehta Amritsar organized by the Damdami Taksal head Harnam Singh Dhuma, he asked the BJP leadership to clarify its position. “Was the Maharashtra BJP leader representing the party or was he on his own?” he asked, adding, in both situations the BJP owes an explanation to people of Punjab.
The PCC president pointed out, if someone opposes the BJP, he is instantly damned as “anti-national” and now their own leaders are sharing stage and space with people whose positions are not unknown to anyone. “Not that anyone needs a certificate from the BJP, but it exposes duplicity and hypocrisy of the party preaching nationalism to others while resorting to rank opportunism for electoral gains”, he noted.
He reminded the BJP that Punjab has lost tens of thousands of people during the dark era. “Punjab has rejected the divisive and sectarian ideology long back. Don’t try to revive it for your electoral gains”, he warned the BJP. Telling the BJP not to play with fire for petty electoral gains, he said, Punjabis will never accept the BJP and its divisive agenda and ideology.
“Rather you stand exposed today that you can stoop so low to any levels out of sheer electoral opportunism”, he told the BJP. Warring further reminded the BJP, “along with tens of thousands of people who were killed, the Congress paid the heaviest price to restore peace in Punjab…we have lost a Prime Minister and a Chief Minister to the hatred of the same ideology which you are espousing and embracing now, like ideological cousins”.