The campaign for the Lok Sabha election has gained pace in Punjab’s Bathinda, the stronghold of the Badal family of the Shiromani Akali Dal, with “Panthic” (Sikh) issues dominating the discourse.
The ruling Congress is attacking the Akali Dal by raising the pardon granted to the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a blasphemy case and the Kotkapura-Behbal Kalan police firing in 2015, which followed the Bargari sacrilege.
The sitting MP and Union Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, of the Akali Dal is raking up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
At Bathinda recently, Chief Minister Captain Amaridner Singh raised the issue of “sacrilege” when the Akali Dal and the BJP ruled the State.
People would punish Ms. Badal for her “arrogance” and the cases of “sacrilege”, he said.
“People have not forgotten Bargari or Kotkapura, which were a brazen attempt by the Badals to create communal tensions,” he said.
For Ms. Badal, the two-time MP, the election is a litmus test. She highlights her work for the State and the Sikh community, and the “anti-incumbency” factor against the ruling Congress. “I have taken up issues of Punjab as well as the Sikh community. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always reacted positively to my demands,” she said after filing her nomination earlier this week. Ms. Badal said Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had delayed the AIIMS and Ladhowal mega food park projects.
Ms. Badal accused the Congress of weakening the case of the Sikh community by defending the accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. On the other hand, she said, the NDA government had established a SIT to probe the cases and had reopened some cases to deliver justice.
The Congress has fielded Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the MLA for Gidderbaha.
