After Rahul, Sukhbir visits Radha Soami dera

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 20

A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Radha Soami Satsang, Beas, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, today spent over two hours at the dera.

Sukhbir’s brother-in-law, Cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia, and his wife Ganeive Grewal — who is a relative of dera head Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon — also accompanied them.

The dera, which has a considerable number of followers from the Dalit community, has been attracting top leaders of various political parties, including Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

During his visit to Amritsar district on March 18, Rahul had arrived at the dera in the evening. After an overnight stay, he had left the next day in the afternoon. He had also held a closed-door meeting with the dera head.

At the Golden Temple complex earlier today, the Deputy CM skirted media queries about Rahul’s visit to the Beas dera and whether the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) would follow suit.

He ended the conversation by saying, “Every party has its own perception regarding the elections. CM Parkash Singh Badal’s focus and mine is on development. I often go to various parts of Punjab to oversee ongoing works. We start every work with the blessings of Akal Purakh (Almighty).”

Slamming Rahul’s statement about drug abuse in Punjab, he said, “Rahul, who is out to defame Punjab by branding its youth as drug addicts, is the biggest enemy of the state and he has given proof of being anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh through such baseless statements.”

He further said that leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties were maligning Punjabis by spreading lies. If the Gandhi scion really believes his claim about the drug menace in Punjab, then he should first conduct dope tests on Youth Congress leaders, Sukhbir said.

Reiterating his stand on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, the Deputy CM said they would never allow it to be constructed, even if sacrifices had to be made.

Sukhbir also took stock of the development projects in the holy city in areas around the Golden Temple and the ongoing Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), while issuing instructions to the officers concerned.

Others present on the occasion included Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam, Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh, and Akali leaders Gurpartap Singh Tikka and Navdeep Singh Goldy.