Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress President, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, today described the resentment in Badal village against the flawed model of development of the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Sikhbir Singh Badal, as only the tip of the iceberg in the backdrop of a strong undercurrent of anger against the Parkash Singh Badal government sweeping the entire state.
In a statement, Mr Bajwa referred to the incident in his native Badal village where the Deputy Chief Minister failed to lay the foundation stone of the development works despite all the arrangements having been made and the foundation stone having been installed for a park following strong protest by the residents. The project was to set up a park by partly filling up the village pond which would have inundated nearby houses.
“If this is the state of affairs in his native village where he failed to assess the anger among the people against his so called development works which would have adversely them, one can very well understand as to how the rulers have stonewalled themselves from the masses. His development model at the mega level is clearly flawed dictated by perverted thinking in which the sentiments of the people has little place. He should have understood the negative aspects of his beautification project”, he added.
The PPCC chief said the Badal village has been vertically divided where the Badal family could not have its own sarpanch for about three decades as the people in that village were too familiar with the real face of this family.
He asserted even the BJP, the alliance partner of the Akali Dal, had been openly expressing disenchantment with the style of functioning of the Deputy Chief Minister and the anti-people policies being dictated by him. It was because of this reason that the Narendra Modi government had failed to come to its rescue and all the dreams that had been sold by the Badals to the people before the Lok Sabha elections had crashed.
He called upon the Congressmen to gear up for the struggle against the anti-people policies, goondaism and open loot by the Akali leaders. He did not rule out the BJP ditching its alliance partner after the Lok Sabha elections as had happened in Maharashtra.