Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today assailed the Akali Dal-BJP alliance as just a marriage of convenience and its continuation despite increasing tension was harming the interests of the state by way of total stagnation in governance.
In a statement, Mr Bajwa referred to the decision of the BJP legislature party to boycott the joint meeting of the alliance recently and the threat of the BJP ministers to boycott the cabinet meeting the next morning. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had to invite them next morning at his residence to mollify their sentiments as they had been feeling hurt in the wake of denial of justice to them.
“If even the BJP ministers are resentful of the functioning of the government in which they themelves are the party, what can a common man expect. In case this tension ridden arrangement continues for the rest of the term that is now less than two years, this might ruin the state totally,” he added.
He referred to yesterday’s clash between the Akali and the BJP workers in Rampura Phul in which the name of the Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Mr Sikander Singh Maluka had surfaced. The BJP activist who was attacked was distributing pamphlets against Mr Maluka. Earlier, the Education Minister Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema and the Industries Minister Mr Madan Mohan Mittal had come face to face on the issue of election of Anandpur Sahib Nagar council office bearers. The Local Bodies Minister Mr Joshi had been waiting for days after brother received a beaten up by the Akalis in Tarn Taran.
He wondered how the two parties could continue to be in alliance under such a situation as the clashes not only at the level of the workers but also tension between the ministers from the two parties had become every day affair. It seemed that the Chief Minister had lost all control over his government and it was turning into a free for all. He said the sufferers under such a situation happened to be the common people.
While the tendency in the dominating Akali leadership was to ignore the BJP’s concerns, the BJP government at the centre led by Mr Narendra Modi had now left the Badal government in a lurch by rejecting all its demands, he added.