Badal writes to Raj Nath Singh- Cong govt using radicals to distract attention from own failures
Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today cautioned the Union Government that the Congress government in Punjab was “actively and openly in cahoots with the dangerous elements who threaten peace and communal harmony in the state”
In a letter to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Mr Badal said that it was alarming that even the “ the state machinery has been put in the service of appeasement of those who openly talk about a return to the dangerous decade and half of bloodshed and hatred. “He said that Punjab “has been brought to the brink of an explosive catastrophe” because of the “criminal laxity and negligence of those entrusted with the task of safeguarding peace in the state.”
The former Chief Minister the government lacks the political will and the capacity to check the forces that threaten peace and communal harmony.
In a damning indictment of the state government, Mr Badal accused the ruling party of “ flirting with elements committed to the path of bloody and violent means for the achievement of their dangerous goals.” He said that as a result of this, the has stumbled from one crisis to another in the past two years.
Mr Badal said that the polices of the Congress party and its govt in Punjab are an exact replay of the Congress conspiracies which had led to the Punjab tragedy in 1984 . As in the 80’s, the Congress and its govt. in Punjab are encouraging and promoting the forces opposed to peace. Once again, the Congress “has succumbed to the temptation of using these dangerous forces to target its political opponents and to distract people’s attention from the abject failures of the state government and from its refusal to honour its commitments to the Punjabis.”
- Badal said that the Congress government in Punjab has shifted “the focus from peace, communal harmony and development which remained the central component of the Punjab narrative during ten years of SAD-BJP government. In the past almost two years, the emphasis had been “purposely shifted” to the political exploitation of emotive issues.
( Text of the letter from the former Chief Minister, Punjab, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal to the Union Home Minister Shri Raj Nath Singh on the mounting threat to peace and communal harmony and the alarming development of the political support and cover being provided by the ruling party in Punjab to forces committed to violence and hatred. )
It is with deep anxiety and concern that I am constrained to write this to draw your kind attention to the mounting threat to peace and communal harmony in the state of Punjab. A combination external designs against our country and criminal laxity, negligence and even tacit and active encouragement by those entrusted with the task of safeguarding peace in Punjab has brought the state to the brink of a major and explosive catastrophe. There appears to be a complete and criminal absence of political will in the powers that be in the state to fight and defeat the elements and forces, both external and internal, who are out to set the state aflame again.
The most alarming development in the past two years has been the political support and cover being provided by the ruling party in Punjab to forces committed to violence and hatred. The main reason for the dangerous drift in Punjab is that the ruling party in the state has succumbed to the temptation of misusing the enemies of peace and communal harmony for its petty political gains. It has been actively and openly in cahoots with these elements merely to use them to target its political opponents at the expense of peace in the state.
As a result of this flirtation by the ruling party in Punjab with elements committed to the path of bloody and violent means for the achievement of their dangerous goals, the state has stumbled from one crisis to another in the past two years. During ten years of the SAD-BJP alliance government, the central component of the Punjab narrative remained focused on peace, communal harmony, growth and development. In the past almost two years, it has been purposely shifted to the political exploitation of emotive issues. It is for this new narrative that the ruling party here has pushed the state machinery in the service of appeasement of those who openly talk about a return to the dangerous decade and half of bloodshed and hatred.
There have been alarming pointers to the growing threat in recent times. In November this year alone, the intelligence agencies have come across credible information on the conspiracies aimed at political assassinations in the state. There was an attempt on the life of former Deputy Chief Minister and SAD President Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal. Shockingly, the police was not willing even to book the culprits in this case. It was only on the insistence of the SP (Security) accompanying Sardar Sukhbir Singh that a case was finally registered. The attitude of the authorities in this case is symbolic of the approach adopted by the present regime in the state towards threats to peace and communal harmony.
Today, there has been a shocking incident bomb blast in Amritsar resulting in the loss of precious lives. In April this, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh himself went on record admitting that there has been a rise of extremism in the state.
Despite this realization, the attitude of the ruling party and of the government continues to betray a criminal complicity with the forces that actually pose this danger. In fact, outfits from where such dangers emerge have been holding secret meetings with the Chief Minister aimed at vilification of the Congress party’s principal political opponents, the SAD.
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No wonder then that the state government has utterly disregarded several specific warnings from the highest quarters about the approaching catastrophe. Recently, the Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat referred to this approaching storm, publically confirming that “ an attempt is being made to disrupt peace in Punjab.”
There have also been reports by intelligence agencies about of Pakistan sending trained terrorists to exploit this drift and negligence of the Punjab government and set peace in Punjab on fire. All such warnings have been fallen on deaf ears of the Punjab government as the ruling party here continues to fan the sentiment of violence in the state, openly encouraging elements whose declared aim and objective are to spread communal hatred, divide Punjabis against themselves and to encourage, spread and promote bloody extremism in the state. All this is being done just to take political mileage and tarnish the image of their opponents.
It may be recalled that the tragedy of the eighties was scripted around the same strategy employed by the Congress leaders to marginalize the voices of sanity and moderation represented by the Shiromani Akali Dal. But the Congress party seems to have learnt no lessons from that unspeakable tragedy for which Punjab, the Sikh community and the country had to pay such a dear price. The Congress is working on exactly the same strategy again and unless stopped in time, this can have extremely dangerous consequences for Punjab and the rest of the country by taking the state back to the dangerous era of the eighties and the early nineties.
I deem it my duty to caution everyone in the country, especially the Government of India, against the dangers of a revival of violence and extremism in the state. I hope that the authorities in Punjab and in the government would take note of the approaching calamity and that necessary steps would be taken in time to prevent it.
-PTC NEWS
