Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 25

BJP leader and former state president Manoranjan Kalia on Friday said the BJP was observing June 25 as Black Day in protest against the policies of the Congress party.

Condemning Capt Amarinder Singh for giving jobs to MLAs’ sons, Kalia said the recent decisions showed that the party could do anything for protecting chair even if it was not in public interest.

Kalia said, “To curb the growing dissidence among Congress legislators in Punjab, Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh took the decision in the Cabinet meeting to appoint the son of Fateh Jang Bajwa MLA as Inspector in Punjab Police and the son of Rakesh Panday MLA as Naib Tehsildar on compassionate grounds by suspending the rules of compassionate appointment as these appointments did not cover under the rules of compassionate appointments. Moreover, there was a hue and cry in the Congress itself.”

“Immediately after coming to power in 2017, Capt Amarinder Singh appointed former Chief Minister Beant Singh’s kin as DSP on compassionate grounds. The said appointment was stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court,” Kalia said.

Kalia said, “Chair is more important than public interest for the Congress. The Congress can go to any extent to save it. The BJP is observing 25th June as Black Day to make the people of India vigilant because those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”

Kalia also made reference to the Emergency saying on this day (June 25), an emergency was clamped in the whole country by then Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi. At that time, the fundamental rights, enshrined in the Constitution of India, were suspended, the censorship was imposed on the Print Media and all the leaders were put behind bars. All this was done to save the prime ministerial chair of late Indira Gandhi whose election was declared null and void by then Justice Jagmohan Sinha on June 12, 1975, in a decision of an election petition filed by late Raj Narain. Thus June 25,1975, was black day for Indian Democracy.

He said, “Though 46 years have passed and no party in power can repeat this blunder but those tendencies are still prevalent in the Congress. There is no democracy in the Congress. The post of the national president of the Indian National Congress on the one pretext or the other is still being rotated in the Gandhi family between mother and son (Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi).