Also castigates Simranjit S Mann for cosying up to Congress and
criticizing Shaheed Bhagat Singh
Longowal/Sangrur, June 16 – Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president
Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the people of this constituency had
passed a vote of no-confidence against chief minister Bhagwant Mann
and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government by holding widespread
protests across the constituency against the chief minister for betraying
their interests.
Talking to newsmen at Sunam while addressing public gatherings in
favour of joint panthic and SAD-BSP candidate Biba Kamaldeep Kaur
Rajoana for the Sangrur parliamentary by-poll, the SAD president said
“the people have shown the mirror to Bhagwant Mann. Despite huge
security arrangements people came out spontaneously to protest against
him. This shows Bhagwant Mann now cannot even visit his own
erstwhile constituency without a police cordon”.
Asserting that all this was happening because the chief minister had not
even cared to conduct a thanksgiving tour of his constituency or address
the grievances of people since the last three months, Mr Sukhbir Badal
said “the propaganda created in Chandigarh through a multi-crore
advertisement campaign is being exposed in the field with massive
protests”. He said people were also angry that the chief minister had
even failed to prevail upon Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to sign
the release orders of Prof Dewinderpal Singh Bhullar even after the case
of the latter’s release had been cleared by the officialdom.
When asked, Mr Badal also castigated SAD (Amritsar) candidate
Simranjit Singh Mann for speaking out in favour of Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi. “It seems Mr Mann has developed a new found love for
the Congress party which was responsible for attacking Sri Darbar Sahib
with tanks and mortars”. He said a little earlier Mr Mann had also
spoken out against Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Earlier during his speech at several places including Longowal,
Badrukha, Cheema and Sunam, the SAD President delved upon how a
senior SAD delegation had urged the SAD (Amritsar) president not to
contest the elections and support a joint panthic candidate. “We even
assured Mr Mann that we would support his candidature from the place
of his choice in 2024 and that it was important to field a member from
the families of Sikh detenues to pave the way for their release. You
judge who is at fault?” he told the people at the public meetings.
Speaking about the Sikh detenues , Mr Badal said the former had been
swayed by emotions after the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and the
subsequent massacre of Sikhs across the country in 1984. He said the
Sikh detenues had been awarded life sentences which they had
completed but they were still not being freed. He gave the example of
Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who had been jailed for 28 years without
parole.
Speaking about joint panthic candidate Biba Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana,
the SAD President said “she is not even a member of the SAD. She has
been nominated by the ‘panth’ after deep deliberations following the
directive of the Sri Akal Takth Jathedar to field a member from among
the families of the Sikh detenues' '. He said Biba Rajoana was also a
victim of police repression with her elder sister and brother being killed
and their house being burnt during the period of strife in the State.
Those present on the occasion included Balwinder Singh Bhundur,
Baldev Singh Mann, Gobind Singh Longowal, Baljit Singh Jalalusma,
Hansraj Josan and Rajinder Deepa.
