PATIALA: Showing no let up in the
political assault launched by him against SAD patriarch Prakash Singh Badal and its president Sukhbir Badal, Punjab cabinet minister
Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday challenged the latter to an open
debate on the issues of
sacrilege and firing at Bebhal Kalan.
Interacting with mediapersons during a private visit at Moonak, the cabinet minister said he was ready to face Sukhbir either at his native Badal village or any where he chooses. He said the victory of the Congress in the block samiti and zila parishad elections has given a clear message to SAD that the people of the state had completely rejected them. Sidhu also trained his guns at the BJP government at the Centre, claiming that due to their wrong policies the entire nation was reeling under a steep hike in fuel prices. He said the BJP would have to face the consequences of this in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He said under the Congress rule even though the fuel prices in the international market had gone up to $150 a barrel, but the petrol prices never went over Rs 80 a litre. When the BJP came to power, the fuel prices in the international market were at $40 per barrel but the benefit of the same was never passed on to the consumers.
Drawing a parallel between the prices of the fuel and the MSP for the crops, Sidhu said that in 1992 the cost of diesel was Rs 6 a litre, while paddy was sold at Rs 270 and wheat at Rs 330 per quintal. While, the cost of diesel has now increased by over 15 times but the MSP for the crops has gone up only five times. Due to the rising input cost in agriculture the farmers were under financial distress and despite this the Union government was not taking any corrective measures, Sidhu said.
