M A I N   N E W S

Anti-Cong tirade by SAD, BJP
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo), April 13
Sanctity of religious festivities notwithstanding, the top leadership of both SAD and the BJP launched its election campaign for the ensuing Assembly elections by mounting a massive frontal attack on the Congress and the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) here today.

While the BJP chief, Mr Jana Krishnamurthi, making his maiden appearance in Punjab’s political arena after his elevation, sought people’s support for the NDA government at the Centre, the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, criticised Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, Capt Amarinder Singh and Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar, besides maintaining that the SAD-BJP alliance had come to stay.

The Haryana Chief Minister and INLD chief, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, joined the anti-Congress chorus, maintaining that interests of all sections of society in general and farmers in particular were safe under the leadership of Mr Badal. The turnout of leaders and the audience was impressive.

The early morning drizzle and an overcast sky failed to deter Baisakhi revellers from reaching the historic Takht Damdama Sahib.

Others who spoke at the rally were Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Mr Madan Lal Khurana, Mr O.P. Kohli, Prof Brij Lal Rinwa, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Mr Gurdev Singh Badal, Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Mr Tota Singh, Mr Chiranji Lal Garg and SGPC chief Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

Mr Badal said the Congress, during its 45-year “misrule” had given slogans for poor and benefited the rich, thus widening the social gap. Abundance of national resources nothwithstanding, the Congress brought misery and poverty to the country as it continued with its divide and rule policy, he said blaming the present plight of the Punjab farmers to Congress policies.

Accusing the SHSAD of being a party of Congress “agents”, the Chief Minister said it had entered into a deal with the Congress on the eve of the Sunam byelection.

He said both Congress and SHSAD leaders had been accusing him of “amassing” wealth. Denying all charges, he said: “They are jealous as I go for sangat darshan programmes and disburse financial grants at villages and towns. We went to Jalalabad yesterday and will go to Abohar on April 16. This evening I shall be in Pathankot,” he said, maintaining that the Congress was finished as it had lost the confidence of people.

Mr Chautala lauded the contribution of Sikhs and Punjabis in the freedom struggle and against Emergency. “I have come here to beg you to vote for Mr Badal, who, along with my late father, Ch Devi Lal, has been a messiah of farmers. It is he who has always been championing the cause of the peasants,” he said, cautioning people against the divide and rule policies of the Congress. “With Indira Gandhi’s death, the Congress, too, was finished,” he said.

He also blamed the Congress for signing the death warrant of the farmers by joining the WTO. The Haryana Chief Minister said, the NDA government was committed to safeguard the interests of the farmers by imposing heavy anti-dumping duties on agricultural produce.

Mr Krishnamurthy, who spoke in chaste Hindi, said the NDA government needed the support and cooperation of all sections of society. Earlier, Mr Madan Lal Khurana, in a scathing attack on the Congress held it responsible for painting Sikhs as militants during the eighties and held that the major achievement of the NDA government at the Centre and the SAD-BJP government in Punjab had been communal harmony.

Mr O.P. Kohli, who looks after Punjab in the national BJP, said opposition parties had been making baseless allegations against the NDA government at the Centre.The Punjab BJP chief, Prof Brij Lal Rinwa, was also critical of the Congress. He said public meetings organised by the congress at Jalalabad and Ludhiana had ended in a fiasco.

He said both Mr Bangaru Laxman and Mr George Fernandes resigned immediately “but such a thing was alien to Congress culture,” he added.Mr Gurdev Singh Badal talked about various achievements of the Punjab Government.

The Punjab Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, said the SAD-BJP government had not only reconstructed the state economy, but also presented a futuristic budget for the next six years.

The Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, said most of the long-pending demands of the Dal, including more autonomy for states, had already been conceded by the Centre by setting a constitutional commission to review, among other things, the Centre-state relations.