New Delhi, August 1
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called on Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and discussed with him a strategy to corner the Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh on the corruption issue.

Without naming anyone, he sought to point an accusing finger at some members of Capt Amarinder Singh’s Council of Ministers for alleged acts of omission and commission since the Congress assumed power five months ago.

Mr Badal forcefully took up the alleged political vendetta unleashed in Punjab coupled with the prospect of a dangerous religious conflagration engulfing the state following the incident in Malout yesterday. He will proceed to Malout tomorrow.

Maintaining that the Congress administration was not being run in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution, Mr Badal told Mr Advani that the Vigilance Bureau had turned into a law unto itself. He claimed that the Capt Amarinder Singh government was indulging in a defamatory and vilification campaign against the SAD and the BJP in the state.

At a press conference here this afternoon, Capt Amarinder Singh stoutly contested Mr Badal’s allegations, emphasising that the state could not remain silent on those who had feathered their own nests and looted the state during the five-year rule of Mr Badal’s SAD. He stressed that investigations would continue and the law would take its own course as “politicians are there to serve the people and the state and must be accountable.”

Mr Badal, who also met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, apprised the BJP leadership of the widespread unrest among various sections in the state, including farmers, government servants and traders.

Mr Advani had suggested some time back that an NDA team would be sent to Punjab to make an independent assessment of the ground situation and report to the Centre. Mr Badal has sought some more time to prepare district wise reports of what is characterised as the “police raj” before the NDA team descends on Punjab on a fact-finding mission.