Jakhar lashes out at Badals for asking him not to speak on issues of Sikhism

Fatehgarh Churian, Sept 28: Declaring that he was a true Sikh than the Jathedars who had always used the Panthic card to promote their petty political interests, Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur bypoll nominee Sunil Jakhar today lashed out at the Badals for asking him not to speak on issues of Sikhism. The entire Punjab knew that he had always stood by the Sikh ethos and people were also well aware of his political ideology of raising the voice for the poor and the masses, Mr Jakhar said, addressing a series of worker meetings here. Mr Jakhar also lashed out at the Badals for unnecessarily criticising the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission probing sacrilege cases, including the Behbal Kalan firing incident, and said they were doing so for fear of being exposed. Once the findings come, the people would find out on whose orders the police had opened fire. He came down heavily, once again, on the Badals on the farm loan waiver issue, asking former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal how many homes of farmers who committed suicide during his tenure had he visited as chief minister. Accusing the Akali leaders of making business out of governance, Mr Jakhar pointed out that merely for minting Rs 5 crore, spurious pesticides were purchased by the erstwhile government, resulting in damage to 12 lakh acres of cotton crop. It was Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh at whose behest Rs 640 crore was eventually given in compensation to the cotton growers, he pointed out, adding that the Badals never had the welfare of farmers at heart and would not have compensated the farmers had Captain Singh not fought for them. The Punjab Congress chief said while Sukhbir’s criticism of Capt Singh could be dismissed as his usual habit of making absurd statements, he was surprised at Parkash Singh Badal’s disparagement of the Congress government on the farm loan waiver issue.  UNI