New Delhi, January 19
While “corruption” is the theme of the Congress charge sheet against the Badal government, it also nails the SAD-BJP coalition for failing to fulfil most of the promises made at the time of 1997 elections.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is the focus of the Congress attack in the charge sheet with the party alleging that properties had been made by his family and the state had been misgoverned resulting in a huge debt, rising unemployment, farmers feeling agitated and weaker sections getting ignored.

The charge sheet, which will be the staple of the Congress attack in the run up to the Assembly poll, will be released in the next few days after clearance from the Congress high command.

Sources said the charge sheet accused the Akalis of sowing seeds of terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s and dwells at length on “communal politics.”

Raising the issue of the SYL canal construction, the charge sheet says that former Haryana Governor Mahavir Prasad in his address to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in March 2000, had sought Centre’s intervention to complete the SYL canal.

It says that the SAD-BJP government has failed to protect the interest of Punjab vis-a-vis the neighbouring states and the Central Government. “All inter-state matters still remain unresolved. These include the river waters dispute, territorial disputes, including Chandigarh,” the charge sheet says. Asserting that “Haryana had no right on water and Chandigarh,” the charge sheet accuses Mr Badal of lacking in political will to oppose demands of Haryana.

Accusing the Akalis of dividing the state on linguistic lines and sowing seeds of communalism, separatism and regionalism, the charge sheet says the basic philosophy of Akalis has always been of treating religion and politics as inseparable. It says in June 1943 Master Tara Singh had raised demand for Azad Punjab on communal lines and the Akali Dal had criticised all those who opposed the demand. Later, the charge sheet says, Akali Dal raised demand of Punjabi suba.

Maintaining that the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966 on linguistic basis was a result of pressure from the Akali Dal, the charge sheet says that from 1966 to 1980 Akali Dal accommodated religious and fundamentalist tendencies to strengthen its hold on the state and allied with the Jan Sangh to form coalition governments.

“A big landmark in the communal approach of the Akalis was the adoption of the Anandpur Sahib resolution in October 1973 as per which they proposed restricting Union Government to only four subjects and also raised once again the familiar row of discrimination with the Sikhs by saying that religion was not safe without sovereignty,” the charge sheet says.

Claiming that the Akalis launched morchas and dharamyudh whenever they were out of power, the charge sheet says that on January 27, 1984, Mr Badal had publicly torn copies of the Constitution.

It says that having failed to come to power in 1980, the Akalis started sowing seeds of terrorism by provoking the youth. “During this period they even submitted a memorandum for Khalistan to the UN Secretary General on which Mr Badal was a signatory. The whole world knows that it were the Akali Dal and the SGPC which created a very dangerous, explosive and anti-national atmosphere by allowing use of religious places for terrorist activities. They projected Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a great hero and totally surrendered before him by abrogating their authority. They attended bhog ceremonies of slain terrorists,” the charge sheet says.

Maintaining that the present Akali Dal-BJP government had started with the slogan of Punjabiat, the charge sheet accuses the Akali Dal of not thinking beyond the rich peasantry and the BJP of not thinking beyond the Hindu trading community.

It says the emergence of “one-time pioneers of terrorism” like Wassan Singh Jaffarwal and Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan reflected the trend of using communal and religious slogans to gain strength.

Asserting that it was the Congress which had finished terrorism in the state, the charge sheet says that the aim behind moving resolutions on Operation Blue Star and against Ms Indira Gandhi in the state Vidhan Sabha was to create an atmosphere of distrust and to defame the Congress.

Claiming that the Akali Dal had not taken part in the 1992 Assembly poll due to fear of terrorists, the charge sheet says no effective steps had been taken by the present government to hold poll to samitis and zila parishads in the past two years.

It says no MLA had disclosed his assets as promised in the Akali manifesto of 1997. Accusing the government of “selling government jobs and contracts” and of nepotism, it says government departments had been re-advertising vacancies lying vacant for the past four years.

Criticising the “sangat darshan” programme of the Chief Minister, it says “public money had been politicised” and deserving people had been ignored.

The charge sheet alleges “involvement of Chief Minister’s family in corruption,” citing example of Rs 400-crore water-logging project in Muktsar in which the minister concerned had to give up his department. It says that the state public service commission was in a disarray and the government had failed to abolish “inspector raj.”

It says that properties in Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Patiala and some other places besides 52 canal rest houses having 783.15 acres of land had been sold by the government at “throwaway prices.”