News Analysis India

Tag: Sukhbir Badal

  • Channi government has instructed Punjab DGP to frame Badal family in sacrilege case: Sukhbir Badal

    By PTI

    PHAGWARA: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday alleged that the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government has instructed the Punjab DGP to frame the Badal family in the Behbal Kalan sacrilege and Kotkapura firing cases.

    The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president told media persons here that the Channi government should take action against the culprits and not play politics over the issue.

    Badal claimed that he was not getting either defensive or apprehensive over the issue but found the statements of Channi and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on the issue “amusing”.

    “I don’t care if they frame us, but I warn them that it is a sin and crime to frame anybody in a false case,” he remarked.

    The SAD supremo warned the Congress government and Punjab’s Director General of Police with legal action if false witnesses were arranged to frame the Badals.

    “Reliable sources have told me that the DGP and his team have been instructed to prepare a clear plan for a false witness and record his/her statement under Section 164 CrPc for involving the name of the Badal family in the case,” the SAD chief claimed declining to make public the name of the source.

    “The ruling Congress leaders have been crying hoarse during the last four-and-a-half-years over the matter and have made two attempts to frame the Badals,” he said, adding that it was now their third attempt to implicate the family. “Earlier, (former IPS officer and AAP leader) Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh has made every bid to frame us but the high court rejected his report as politically motivated,” he alleged.

    Singh was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan policing firing incidents.

    He had taken premature retirement in April after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a report filed by the earlier Punjab Police SIT into the Kotkapura firing incident after the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot district.

    He joined the Aam Aadmi Party in June.

    Badal was the deputy chief minister and holding the home portfolio when incidents of desecration of religious texts and the subsequent police firing at people protesting against it had taken place in Faridkot.

    The SAD chief claimed that Channi and his deputy were now attending five-member SIT meetings and violating high court directives for conducting an independent probe into the sacrilege case.

    Regretting that the sacrilege incident occurred during the previous Akali-led government, Badal invoked God to “wipe out” those who were responsible for the act as well those who are doing politics over it.

    “Punjabis and Panth wanted culprits to be behind bars and not politics over the issue,” he said.

    Reminding the Congress government that they have come to power over two major issues – promising to punish those responsible for sacrilege and curbing drugs menace, he alleged that it has failed miserably to solve both.

    “They (Congress) are after the Badal family because they want to divert public attention from their total failure as a government as well as to cover up the war between Channi, Navjot Sidhu and (deputy chief minister) Sukhjinder Randhawa as to who will be the chief ministerial face in 2022 Punjab assembly polls,” he remarked.

    On the Congress-led government announcing a reduction in value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel, making them cheaper by Rs 10 and Rs 5 per litre respectively in the state, Badal asked whether Channi was against farmers as he had reduced the price of diesel by just Rs 5 per litre.

    “Why diesel was not reduced by Rs 10 like petrol,” he asked.

    Badal advised Channi to serve the people of Punjab even if he has been given the opportunity for only two months.

    Asked about his stand over the appointments of high-rank officials, Badal asserted that it was prerogative of the chief minister to appoint the chief secretary, DGP, advocate general and others while the party president has got nothing to do with it.

    Over a month after announcing his resignation as the state Congress chief, Sidhu withdrew it on Friday.

    However, he said he would re-assume charge only after the state government replaced the advocate general.

    Sidhu had earlier expressed his reservations over the appointment of senior advocate A P S Deol as the state’s advocate general.

  • SAD wants Centre’s decisions on BSF jurisdiction, farm laws not to be implemented in Punjab

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday asked the Congress government in Punjab to issue an executive order for non-implementation of the Centre’s move of extending the BSF’s jurisdiction.

    The opposition party further demanded that the Charanjit Singh Channi-led dispensation issue a similar executive decision to stop the implementation of the Centre’s three “black” farm laws.

    The party’s core committee demanded the Punjab government issue executive orders directing its officers not to allow the implementation of the central decisions in the state, saying these fall under the state subjects in the Constitution of India, according to a party release here.

    The core committee meeting was chaired by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

    “The Congress government led by Charanjit Singh Channi is trying to befool the people of Punjab by offering a Vidhan Sabha resolution on these two issues while the fact is that his own government is fully empowered to stop the implementation of central orders on issues which fall under the state government’s jurisdiction. Agriculture and law and order are state subjects,” according to a resolution passed by the SAD core committee. Why are they coming to the Vidhan Sabha for a resolution? Is the Vidhan Sabha stopping the Punjab government from passing executive orders to stop BSF (jurisdiction extension) and farm laws,” it further said.

    The Union government had recently amended the BSF Act to authorise the border guarding force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a 50 km stretch, up from the existing 15 km, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.

    A special session of the Punjab Assembly will be convened on November 8 to reject the Centre’s notification extending the jurisdiction of BSF and the farm laws.

    Harcharan Bains, principal adviser to the SAD president, said the party also slammed the decision of the central government to extend the provisions of the J and K anti-terror act to Punjab, calling it a frontal assault on federalism.

    The SAD asked the Congress government to come clean on its stand against the Centre’s decision in this regard.

    The core committee also demanded a compensation of Rs 50,000 and Rs 15,000 per acre respectively to farmers and farm labourers affected by crop damage due to pink bollworm pest attack.

  • Kotkapura firing: SIT asks Sukhbir Badal to appear before it on June 26

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The special investigation team probing the Kotkapura firing case has asked former Punjab deputy Chief minister Sukhbir Badal to appear before it on June 26.

    On Tuesday, the SIT had questioned former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal.

    Sukhbir was the deputy chief minister when incidents of the desecration of a religious text and the subsequent police firing at people protesting against it had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.

    The Punjab government had formed the new SIT to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had earlier quashed the investigation report of the previous SIT.

    “You are hereby called upon to appear in person along with the relevant record if any before the special investigation team on date 26.06. 2021 at 11 am at Punjab Police Officers’ Institute, Sector 32, Chandigarh,” the summons issued to the Shiromani Akali Dal chief said.

  • Badals never indicted in sacrilege cases: Bikram Majithia hits back at Congress

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday said neither the one-man commission set to probe the 2015 desecration incidents nor the earlier constituted SIT indicted former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy Sukhbir Badal in the cases.

    “In fact, both reports categorically and forcefully refused to indict Parkash Singh Badal or Sukhbir Singh Badal for either the firing or the sacrilege incidents in question. Nowhere in the reports’ recommendations is either Parkash Singh Badal or Sukhbir Badal found guilty of any wrongdoing on the allegations levelled against them by their political opponents,” said Majithia here.

    Majithia’s remarks came two days after Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu shared on his Twitter handle video clips of purported police action on people protesting the desecration of a religious text in Punjab’s Faridkot in 2015 and purported contents of the report of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission that had probed incidents of the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib.

    Sidhu’s tweet was in response to SAD chief Sukhbir Badal’s statement in which he had dared the Congress leaders to share the proof, if they have any, on the “planning and execution” of the alleged acts of the desecration of a religious text in the state’s Faridkot in 2015.

    The Punjab and Haryana High Court had last month quashed a probe report of the Punjab Police Special Investigation Team into the Kotkapura firing incident.

    Majithia on Tuesday said the SIT had relied on the commission’s report and the HC judgment found no truth or merit in both.

    The Akali leader reiterated the party’s open challenge to its critics in the Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party to submit to the court any evidence which they claim they have against Akali leaders.

    During the previous SAD-BJP regime, torn pages of the religious text were found at Bargari in Faridkot.

    Later, in police firing incidents at anti-sacrilege protesters, two people were killed at Behbal Kalan and many injured at Kotkapura.

  • Scam-tainted Congress leaders will be taken to task once SAD comes to power: Sukhbir Singh Badal

    By PTI
    ATTARI: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said all Congressmen who have allegedly indulged in scams and plundered the state exchequer would be taken to task once his party comes to power in Punjab.

    Addressing a rally here, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief accused Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of ‘backstabbing’ the state’s farming community by allegedly participating in the process to finalise the three new agricultural ordinances.

    Badal blamed the Congress for ‘plundering thousands of crores of rupees’ by allegedly giving patronage to illegal liquor and sand mafia and claimed that several legislators of the ruling party were running ‘illegal liquor distilleries’ in the state.

    Outsiders from Rajasthan and Jammu have teamed up with Congress legislators to form ‘sand mafia’ in the state which is ‘looting the state exchequer by mining sand illegally’, he claimed.

    The state suffered a loss of around Rs 6,500 crore in excise revenue and could not collect even Rs 100 crore of the Rs 1,400 crore revenue from sand mining as projected by the Congress-led government, the SAD chief claimed.

    Why should people repose their faith in the chief minister again, asked Badal as he claimed that Singh had visited his office only 11 times during the last four years.

    The chief minister backstabbed the farming community by promising and amending the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) in 2017 and also being part of the process to finalise the three agricultural ordinances, Badal claimed.

    The chief minister also failed to stand up to the centre on all issues concerning the state including the recent Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) because he was afraid of being targeted by the Enforcement Directorate.

    “This is why Amarinder Singh dances to the tunes of the centre,” said Badal.

    Whereas the SAD had always honoured the promises made to Punjabis, said Badal.

    “Parkash Singh Badal had promised to extend free power facility to farmers for agricultural operations and fulfilled this commitment in the very first cabinet meeting after assuming power in the state,” he said.

    Similarly, the SAD was responsible for the start of assured foodgrain procurement on minimum support price in 1966 and a majority of agricultural markets for procurement of foodgrains were established during the tenure of governments led by the Akali Dal, he said.

    The SAD president also took on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal and the party’s Punjab chief Bhagwant Mann.

    He said Kejriwal had promised eight lakh jobs in Delhi but according to an RTI, only 214 jobs were created in the national capital in three years.

  • Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal tests positive for coronavirus

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said he has tested positive for coronavirus.

    He made the announcement a day after addressing a rally in Tarn Taran. Badal said he is fine and has isolated himself.

    “I would like to inform everyone that I have tested COVID positive. My health is fine & as per protocol I have isolated myself. I request those who came in contact with me during the last few days to isolate themselves & get tested for COVID-19,” said Badal in his tweet.

    I would like to inform everyone that I have tested Covid positive. My health is fine & as per protocol I have isolated myself. I request those who came in contact with me during the last few days to isolate themselves & get tested for Covid – 19.
    — Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) March 16, 2021

  • Sukhbir Badal’s vehicle pelted with stones in Punjab’s Jalalabad, claims SAD

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday alleged that the vehicle of its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal was pelted with stones when party workers were attacked by Congress members in Punjab’s Jalalabad.

    Four persons were injured in the incident at Jalalabad Tehsil complex.

    However, Badal was unhurt, they said.

    Badal was accompanying Akali candidates for filing of nomination papers for the February 14 civic polls.

    His media advisor Jangveer Singh alleged that Akali workers were attacked by the Congress workers led by son of ruling party MLA Raminder Singh Awla.

    “Congress goons stoned SAD president’s vehicle, fired and injured two Akali workers,” alleged Jangveer Singh.

    He claimed the police remained “mute-spectator” during the whole incident.

    SAD leader Parambans Singh Romana alleged that Congress workers also fired from their guns.

    Elections to eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on February 14.

  • Farm laws: Badal attacks Modi government again; SAD cadres asked to reach protest sites

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal on Friday asserted the Centre cannot suppress the farmers’ voice against the agriculture laws and claimed BJP cadres are creating tension at peasants’ protest sites at Delhi’s Singhu and Ghazipur borders.

    Underlining that the SAD is a party of “peasantry”, Badal said he spoke to Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, who is leading the farmers’ protest at Ghazipur, and assured him of all support.

    Earlier in the day, farmers camping at the Singhu border clashed with a large group of men claiming to be local residents who reached there to vacate the area.

    Police fired tear gas shells and resorted to baton charge to break up the clash.

    On Thursday, the Ghaziabad administration gave an ultimatum to farmers protesting at UP Gate in Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border to vacate the site by midnight.

    However, the protesters have stayed put at the protest site.

    “BJP cadres are trying to create tension at Singhu and Ghazipur borders where farmers are protesting against the three farm laws. With the help of its cadres, the BJP is creating a situation of confrontation at the locations where the farmers are peacefully protesting against the laws,” the SAD chief said at a press conference here.

    He asked if the government wants to create communal tension in the country.

    “Activities of BJP cadres can create communal tension, I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to check their party cadres,” he said.

    The former deputy chief minister of Punjab said, “The struggle, the fight to repeal three farm laws is not of any specific religion or caste, it is of the entire farming community. The Centre cannot suppress the voice of farmers.”

    Describing farmers as ‘annadatta’, Badal said they don’t need a certificate for their patriotism from any party and cannot be termed anti-national.

    Meanwhile, the party on Friday asked its party cadre to rush to the three farmers’ protest sites on Delhi borders in large numbers to give a further boost to the ongoing agitation.

    SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal also spoke to farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and discussed ways to shore up more strength and support for the farmers’ agitation in Delhi, especially in view of the “combined onslaught against farmers by the BJP and the Centre”, a party statement said.

    Consequent upon the telephonic conversation with Tikait, Badal instructed the Akali cadre to rush to Delhi borders in larger numbers than before and lend strength to the peaceful movement, it added.

    While many Akali contingents have already joined the farmers in the gathering, more are on the way in large numbers, Badal said.

    Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia also appealed to SAD and Youth Akali Dal (YAD) workers who had returned to Punjab during the past one week to go back to the protest sites at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, the statement said.

    It said Badal on Friday sent an Akali delegation comprising senior leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder, SAD Delhi president Harmit Singh Kalka and the DSGMC chief Manjindner Singh Sirsa to the site of the farmers dharna led by Tikait.

    The leaders had extensive talks with Tikait and discussed ways to lend more strength to the agitation, it added.

    The delegation assured Tikait of “whole-hearted support in terms of men, material and morale” to the farmers’ cause, the statement said.

    Majitha said more partymen need to be at protest sites when the government wants to crush the agitation.

    “I know a large number of you have been camping on the Delhi borders since the last two months. However, the central government is making attempts to crush the ‘kisan andolan’ (agitation) in league with the BJP government in Haryana,” he said.

    “We must ensure this nefarious design to silence the voice of the ‘annadaata’ and disrespect the sacrifice of eighty martyrs (farmers) does not succeed at any cost.

    No sacrifice is too big to ensure a win for the peasantry as well as ensuring peace and communal harmony,” the statement quoted Majitha as saying.

    The SAD leader also condemned the “crude attempts” being made to suppress the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s new farm laws “by letting loose lumpen elements on peacefully agitating farmers at Ghazipur on Thursday during the course of which farmer leader Rakesh Takait was targeted”.

    “Similar attempts were made at Singhu border on Friday,” he alleged.

    Majithia said such scenes were “extremely unfortunate” in a democracy.

    “Coercive steps like cutting off water and power supply to the dharna sites and stopping food from reaching them would only strengthen the kisan andolan even further.”

    He said it was also condemnable that the “central government was instigating communities to fight against each other and also fomenting fights between farmers as well as farmer organisations”.

    He appealed to farmers, farm labourers and people to maintain peace and communal harmony “despite grave provocations”.

    Majithia also denounced the manner in which the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was being “misused” against farmer leaders and journalists.

    He said the UAPA had been framed against those challenging the unity and integrity of India and should not be used to persecute innocent people.

    “Doing so amounts to dictatorial conduct,” Majithia added.

    Farmers should not be singled out for fighting for the repeal of the three agricultural laws as well as the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report in letter and spirit.

    Majithia, whose party had snapped ties with the NDA over farm laws issue, said the central government had not taken any action against those indulged in wrongful acts on Republic Day in Delhi “which has sent a clear message to the people that state agencies were behind them.