Chandigarh, November 27
Describing it as a “decisive snub of people to Mr Parkash Singh Badal’s jail bharo ploy”, the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, today said on his explicit instructions to the officers concerned, not a single individual was arrested in the state today in connection with the Akali agitation.
Capt Amarinder Singh today complemented the people of the state for what he claimed “remaining aloof from the disruptive agenda of those who had been rejected by the people for their corrupt activities and for bringing Punjab to the brink of financial bankruptcy”. He described the poor response to the “jail bharo” andolan of the SAD (B) as yet another attempt to revive his (Mr Badal) plummeting political fortunes.
Referring to the poor response to the “jail bharo” call of the SAD (B), Capt Amarinder Singh said the only inference that could be drawn from the decisive snub was that the people of the state had seen through Mr Badal’s game which was to divert their attention from exposures of corruption and misdeeds of the Akali ministry and sabotage the development agenda of the Congress government.
“The only lesson Mr Badal can draw from this flop show was that people who had to pay lakhs of rupees for getting government jobs were not going to follow him to jail to save his skin”, he added.
Meanwhile, a government spokesman said the “jail bharo” call of the SAD (B) received a poor response in the state. Giving details of Mr Badal’s “failed agitation”, the spokesman pointed out that contrary to Mr Badal’s loud claims that he would lead more than two lakh common citizens and farmers in the agitation, no more than a few hundred persons actually turned up at various district headquarters. The spokesman clarified that the few people, who did respond to Mr Badal’s call, were all his own party workers and that not a single farmer or common citizen offered himself for arrest.
