Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh has asked Sukhbir Badal to apologise for the vandalisation of Rajiv Gandhi’s statue by workers of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Ludhiana.
On Tuesday, two people reportedly workers of the Youth wing of SAD vandalised and blackened the statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Ludhiana. Later on the congress MP reached the spot with his supporters and cleaned the statue with water and milk.
Condemning the incident the Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh tweeted,
Strongly condemn vandalisation of Rajiv Gandhi's statue by @Akali_Dal_ workers in Ludhiana. Have asked Police to identify the guilty & take strict action. @officeofssbadal should apologise to people of Punjab for this obnoxious act.https://t.co/vh1F12KgEo
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) December 25, 2018
In an official release issued in Chandigarh, Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday asked Sukhbir Singh Badal to stop indulging in petty politics, warning him that such acts would backfire on his party in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The Chief Minister also asked Sukhbir to immediately apologise for the obnoxious act of his party workers, who were clearly acting on an agenda to garner votes in the ensuing polls. Indulgence in such petty and condemnable actions will not absolve you or your family of the many sins of omission and commission against the Guru Granth Sahib and the Sikh community, the Chief Minister further told Sukhbir.
Captain Amarinder Singh directed the district police to immediately identify the culprits responsible for the violence and take stringent action against them, as per law.
On the other hand, Sukhbir Singh Badal , a SAD leader and son of former Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, supporting the action at Ludhiana, tweeted,
You @capt_amarinder should apologise to the Sikh sangat for failing them as CM and standing with hated Gandhi family. The community has shown what it thinks of Rajiv Gandhi in Ludhiana. Don’t disrespect the sentiments of Sikhs/3
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) December 25, 2018
Continuing his tweet, Sukhbir Singh added,
If you @capt_amarinder have any ‘dard’ for the Sikh ‘qaum’ you would resign as CM and stand with community to expose Gandhi family for authoring and engineering genocide of Sikhs in 1984. But it seems you are made of stone. No amount of suffering of the community moves you/2
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) December 25, 2018
Lashing out at the Akalis, Captain Amarinder Singh said, in their desperation to win public support which the party had completely lost due to its criminal acts of commission and omission in the 10 years of SAD-BJP rule, the Badals and their supporters are stooping to abominable levels. They are well aware of the fact that the Gandhis were never named or implicated in the 1984 riots, yet they continue to drag the family into the case to further their own political agenda, said the Chief Minister.
Captain Amarinder Singh reiterated that only a handful of Congress, BJP and RSS workers were involved in the violence against the Sikh community in 1984, and the judiciary was proceeding to act against them. Sajjan Kumar has already been sentenced to life term by the court and others involved in the perpetration of the riots would also face legal action, he added.
Had the Gandhis been involved in any way, they would have been named by at least some of the victims in the wake of the riots, he observed, adding that while he had personally visited the refugee camps to meet the victims, Sukhbir had packed his bags and left for the US, and was thus totally unaware of the developments at that time.
The Akalis in their frustration to seize political mileage, were taking the law into their hands, which his government would not allow at any cost, the Chief Minister warned, adding that he would not let the state’s hard-earned peace be disturbed by anyone.