Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh Tuesday warned the Aam Aadmi Party against resorting to disruptive and destabilising tactics for short-term political gains, saying Punjab needs peace, and not anarchy, to progress and prosper, which the party (AAP) was propagating. Talking to reporters after inducting reputed singer and AAP leader Balkar Sidhu into the party, he also asked the party to come clean about the posters circulated by it carrying pictures of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, Arvind Kejriwal, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Mann, asking people to celebrate his (Bhindrawale’s) birth anniversary on February 12, by paying obeisance at the nearest gurdwaras.
Referring to the party’s invocation of inqilab (revolution) and attributing it to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Capt. Singh pointed out, “He (Bhagat Singh) raised the inqilab slogan against the despotic foreign rule. Will the AAP clarify against whom they are raising the revolution ”
Asserting that the AAP was waging a rebellion, he said, on the one hand they were invoking people for “revolution” and on the other hand they were asking people to celebrate Bhindrawale’s birth anniversary.
He said, there was a clear link between the two. “The AAP seems to be going beyond even Simranjit Singh Mann’s Khalistan agenda”, he observed, while remarking, “they are trying to wage a rebellion”. He said, both the things were linked and it was dangerous for Punjab.
Replying to another question on the racial attacks on Sikhs in the United States, Capt Amarinder said, more than anybody else, it is the failure of the SGPC Dharam Prachar Committee which has neither done any work at home nor abroad. He pointed out, the SGPC has huge funds.
“Instead of keeping it at the disposal of Badals, why SGPC can’t spend it abroad by educating people there that the Sikhs are distinct from others”, he said.
The PCC president thanked the US President Barrack Obama for inducting a Sikh as top official in his government so that it gets clarified that the Sikhs are not Arabs. “If Obama can feel for the Sikhs, I am surprised why the SGPC cannot ” he asked.
ON the issue of Congress Manifesto Committee, he said, it will be constituted by the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi. He said, he had only constituted the expert working groups for different fields like the economy and finance, agriculture, health, education and like that.
He said, Mr Manpreet Singh Badal was heading the group that will look into the means and ways for reviving the Punjab’s economy. He said, these expert groups will submit their papers to the Manifesto Committee.
