Akali Dal likens Captain Amarinder to Aurangzeb

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday said chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh was ruling like Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and “the common man was feeling aggrieved to have voted for him”.

Coinciding with the birthday of the CM and a year after the assembly poll results which saw the Congress victorious in the state, the Akali Dal held a rally on Amarinder’s home turf where party president Sukhbir Badal said that Captain not only failed people of Punjab but even voters of his constituency of Patiala. “I know people are feeling disillusioned and are angry over the one-year misrule of the Amarinder government, but let me tell you, the most aggrieved are the Congressmen as even they are unable to meet the CM,” said Sukhbir.

Taking a dig at the CM, Akali leader and former revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia said: “Amarinder’s rule is akin to that of Aurangzeb. His government has withdrawn development funds, stopped widow and senior citizens’ pensions, besides discontinuing other social welfare schemes. The government has also imposed power bills on Scheduled Castes and other backward classes.”

Farmers are committing suicides as the Amarinder government has failed to keep its promise of complete debt waiver, said Sukhbir.

He said the CM should ensure justice to the mining officer who had been “beaten up” in a Patiala police station for stopping an MLA from indulging in illegal mining.

Rally organiser and former minister Surjit Singh Rakhra accused the police of stopping Akali workers to reach to rally venue.