Amid the controversy surrounding the “Nanded pilgrims”, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP on Monday accused senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh of stigmatising the Sikhs by attempting to hold them guilty of spreading the novel coronavirus.
The SAD-BJP coordination committee in a meeting also alleged that the Punjab government was mistreating the pilgrims who returned from the Hazur Sahib in Nanded in Maharashtra.
The meeting was jointly presided over by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP State president Ashwani Sharma. Both the leaders had accused Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of failing to provide appropriate leadership as COVID-19 raged.
In a joint statement, the leaders said the manner in which Mr. Digvijaya Singh had compared the Nanded pilgrims with a congregation of another religion appeared to be a ploy to stigmatise Sikhs in the same manner the Congress party did in 1984 by calling them ‘terrorists’ and in 2012 by terming them “drug addicts”. The leaders demanded that Congress president Sonia Gandhi should take action against Mr. Singh immediately.
Punjab Transport Minister Razia Sultana refuted the statement of Maharastra PWD Minister Ashok Chavan claiming “drivers from Punjab might have infected the pilgrims from Nanded Sahib”.
Terming Mr. Chavan’s remark as misleading and bereft of facts, Ms. Sultana said a person holding a constitutional post must not act irresponsibly and issue statements without verifying the facts.
