Rejecting charges that Congress was supporting radical and anti-national forces, party’s Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh on Saturday claimed that Deputy Chief Minister >Sukhbir Badal was trying to shift the blame for his own failures on Congress.
“We in Congress do not need any lessons on patriotism and nationalism from someone like Sukhbir Badal, whose father and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal still takes pride in having burnt the copies of the Constitution of India during Khalistan movement,” he alleged.
Referring to the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’, the religious congregation of the Sikhs held at Amritsar recently, Amarinder said, the presence of huge number of people there was an expression of “anger” against the Badal government and not to support Khalistan as being projected by Sukhbir Badal and Khalistan protagonist Simranjit Singh Mann together.
On Sukhbir’s claims that he had proof as to how anti-national resolutions at the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ were prepared and passed, what was he doing as the Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister of the state.
“Does his responsibility finish at blaming the Congress,” he asked, adding, he should better own the moral responsibility and resign.
Amarinder claimed Sukhbir is only betraying his frustration and “congenital obsession” of blaming Congress for their own wrongs.
“It is natural for Sukhbir and his father to feel frustrated that when Rahul Gandhi is hailed and welcomed with open arms across Punjab while going on padyatra, the Badals cannot even dare to venture out lest people thrash them like their ministers,” he alleged in a statement here.
The former Punjab Chief Minister said, the Akalis including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy Sukhbir Badal were “unnerved” over Congress’ popularity in the state and had now launched a “malicious and slanderous” campaign against the party and its leaders.
He claimed that there are reports of Akali leaders, ministers and legislators being thrashed by people out of anger, saying, “their (Badals’) frustration is natural”.
On Friday, he claimed, minister Sikander Singh Malukha was “slapped” by an elderly angry farmer in his home town.
