Chandigarh, August 11
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wants vendetta politics to end not only in Punjab but also in the whole of the country.

“I do not believe in vendetta politics. It is not good,” he said in an interview with Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune. Badal maintains that the case against his immediate predecessor, Capt Amarinder Singh, was not registered by the present regime but was initiated during the previous Congress rule in the state.

He maintained that no case against any Congress leader or MLA had been registered during the SAD-BJP government though the previous Congress government not only implicated former Akali Ministers in false cases but also treated them shabbily. ”It was Congress that started vendetta politics. I would not have felt that bad if they had implicated my son or me. They implicated my wife also. What had my wife to do with all these?” he quipped.

Talking about elevation of Sukhbir Singh Badal, he said that it was for the Shiromani Akali Dal to decide. “I had no hand in his becoming Deputy Chief Minister,” he said maintaining that politics was no exception, as wards of doctors become doctors; engineers become engineers and so on.

He said that his continuation as Chief Minister was also dependent upon the party.

Referring to the Rajiv-Longowal accord, Punjab Chief Minister said that he forewarned Sant Harchand Singh Longowal that he might be cheated into the accord. “I was proved right as the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab was cancelled at the last moment,” he said.