SAD president Sukhbir Badal along with state BJP president Vijay Sampla and other leaders at the political conference in Muktsar. (Express Photo: Gurmeet Singh)
JUSTIFYING HIS party’s stand to organise a political conference at Maghi Mela at Muktsar, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday asked his workers to start working for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress and AAP did not organise a political conference at Maghi Mela this time, citing Akal Takht’s call against mixing religion with politics.
“In 10 months of Congress rule, the government has done nothing apart from closing down various schemes started by the SAD-BJP government. Just a year is left now for the Lok Sabha polls and our alliance is going to win all 13 Lok Sabha seats from Punjab. So, party workers need to work hard to make it possible,” Sukhbir said. For the first time in the past 10 years, former CM Parkash Singh Badal skipped the Maghi Mela. Poor health was cited as the reason for his absence.
Speaking about the criticism for organising the political conference, Sukhbir said, “In Muktsar, Guru Gobind Singh had won the battle against Mughals and hence this history needs to be told to the younger generation. SAD follows the ideology of Miri Piri in which religion comes first for us. We need to tell historical importance of this day to the younger generation.”
In his speech, Sukhbir also gave a list of projects where SAD-BJP had funded religious organisations like Durgiana Mandir, Ram Teerath Temple, Darbar Sahib and heritage projects. He targeted CM Captain Amarinder Singh, calling him “Ahankari Raja” and said Finance Minister Manpreet Badal knew nothing as how to manage the finances of the state. “It seems Manpreet has got the soul of Mughals inside him. He never speaks in Punjabi. You can always see him speaking in Urdu. He never talks less than Ghalib. He gave a grant for Urdu language, and not for Punjabi.”
Targeting the Congress government on its farm debt waiver scheme, the SAD chief said, “They have chosen only 47,000 farmers to start with and will add a few lakhs in the next phase. The average waiver is of not more than Rs 40,000 while he (Amarinder Singh) promised a complete waiver before polls. From where is this money coming? Before launching the scheme, they imposed 1% tax on wheat and paddy through which they collected Rs 800 crore. They are using that money collected from farmers as debt waiver, which too is a farce.”
Former minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia said, “All those who are protesting against the concept of Miri Piri should tell the Punjabis as to why they had not protested last year when AAP had organised political conference. “State BJP president Vijay Sampla, in his speech, said that from February onwards, his party will hold “pol khol” rallies across the state to expose the Congress government.
The rally which was attended by thousands of supporters from Muktsar, Fazilka and Ferozepur. Local leaders of Malwa area were also present. However, Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar committee staged a protest on Muktsar-Ferozepur road demanding that religious events not be politicised. They were not allowed to go towards the venue of political conference.