Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) three-time Bathinda MP and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for sitting on a dharna in Bhagat Singh’s village for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “Punjab will punish Bhagwant Mann for sitting on a dharna in Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s village for liquor scam accused Arvind Kejriwal,” she told CNN-News18.
In an interview during her campaign trail in Bathinda, where she is seeking a fourth continuous term, Harsimrat said both Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress were fooling the people of Punjab by cursing each other in Punjab while being in an alliance at the national level. “When you ask them that if any of you win where will you go, they say we will go into the (opposition) alliance. So why are they telling people lies? These are fraud parties. Their only agenda is to beat SAD which is in a resurgence mode in Punjab,” Harsmirat Badal told CNN-News18. Bathinda will go to polls in the last phase of Lok Sabha Election on June 1 while the counting of votes will take place on June 4.
SAD Is Not Equal to ‘Udta Punjab’
The SAD has suffered serious reverses in the past two assembly elections in Punjab, being reduced to just three seats in 2022. The AAP won all assembly seats in Bhatinda then. SAD stalwarts like the late Prakash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal also lost their seats and the AAP candidate who beat senior Badal from Lambi is now pitted against Harsimrat from Bathinda. But Harsimrat has said that what happened in 2022 and 2017 was due to a slander campaign against SAD by both the AAP and the Congress to defame her party.
“At our time, they said we were selling drugs and they made a huge issue of sacrilege cases. Now after seven years, they have not sorted out sacrilege issue and they have not been able to eliminate drugs. They don’t want sacrilege cases to be solved as if they are, it will be proved that SAD had no role in it. AAP came to power on the basis of putting wrong allegations on SAD,” she said.
Harsimrat told CNN-News18 that she is taking the matter head-on. “I ask in every meeting – in last seven years, have drugs reduced or increased? Everyone says the latter, and they say drugs were not there in our time because we were arresting drug peddlers. They wanted to finish drugs in 10 days but drug abuse has reached 10 times higher. AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap has said that Punjab Police and the Bhagwant Mann government are together selling drugs in Amritsar,” Harsimrat said.
She said AAP no longer talks about drugs or sacrilege cases. “They have weakened the cases to such an extent that cases got transferred out of Punjab. They don’t want sacrilege cases to be solved as if they are, it will be proved that Akali Dal had no role in it. So how will they use it in every election and bad mouth us,” she questioned.
‘Mann Insulted Bhagat Singh’s Legacy’
Harsimrat also told CNN-News18 that it was shocking that CM Bhagwant Mann recently went to Bhagat Singh’s village to stage a dharna in favour of Arvind Kejriwal who was jailed in the liquor scam case. “He insulted the legacy and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh. This CM mad huge promises and showed dreams like Rs 1000 a month to women, jobs and loan waiver. Not a single woman in Punjab has got Rs 1000 so far,” Harsimrat said. The AAP government has not fulfilled this poll promise in Punjab so far, the CM has admitted.
She added that the AAP had said it will be against VIP culture but the “CM moved in a cavalcade of numerous cars surrounded by 100s of security-men.” “No one has seen the CM in a village in the last two years. Every work done by SAD government on development has come to a standstill as they have not even maintained those works. Every segment of society is on dharna. Farmers are on dharna, youth are on dharna for joblessness, women have not got their due – where is the Rangla Punjab that Mann promised,” Harsimrat questioned.
She accused the Mann government of looting the public exchequer and using it to “make Kejriwal’s corruption shine” all over the country. “In seven years, the debt on Punjab has increased and doubled – it was never of this level in the last 50 years. There has been no new school, no new grid, no new flyover. Further welfare schemes were also curtailed,” Harsimrat said.
‘No Going Back to BJP’
Harsimrat Kaur Badal also made it clear that there was no going back to the BJP. “We were very clear that we parted ways with BJP due to farmer issues and farm bills. We broke the alliance and I left the government. BJP has since meddled into our religious affairs in Haryana and Delhi gurudwara committees. Farmers continue to be on dharna and were not allowed to cross the Punjab border which was made like the Pakistan border. Haryana police shot by drones and even killed one young man. Our government in Punjab did not even have the spine to stand up and say how you entered our land and killed our farmers,” she said.
Harsimrat accused the former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh of similarly being hand in glove with BJP “and hence he joined them as well.” She said the INDIA bloc has further promised in their manifesto that they will convert the state capital Chandigarh into a state like Delhi and this was a dangerous move. “AAP also wants to give away water to Haryana and Delhi through the SYL Canal. Akalis will fight it and again there will be bloodshed in Punjab,” Harsimrat told CNN-News18.
She added that Bhagwant Mann was not being able to fight for Punjab, and the state was being destabilised.
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