The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, June 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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High command upset over negative publicity
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 29
Punjab Congress President H.S. Hanspal said today that neither Mr Parkash Singh Badal nor any member of his family would be arrested. Challans against them would be filed in the court for appropriate action, he added.

Mr Hanspal said action against Mr Badal had been taken on the basis of search warrants issued by the court. The Akalis, he said, should not politicise the issue as “the law is taking its own course in the Badal case and there is no political vendetta”.

Mr Hanspal said he had spoken to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in this connection, “I have fully endorsed what Capt Amarinder Singh has done in the Badal case”. “If there is nothing against Mr Badal why he is afraid of facing the law of the land”, said Mr Hanspal. The Congress Government, he asserted, would not allow the Akalis to disturb law and order in the state.

Meanwhile, the Congress high command is upset over the negative publicity in the case. Sources said Mrs Mohsina Kidwai, General Secretary of the AICC and in charge of the party affairs in Punjab, today contacted top leaders in Punjab in this connection. Top functionaries of the party high command have not been fully briefed about to the Badal case. Most of them are getting information only from the media reports. A feeling is there in the Congress high command sympathy wave has started in support of Mr Badal in the past few days.