Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH, January 18: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today demanded an explanation from the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy Chief Minister son Sukhbir Badal over the revelations reportedly made by the detained SP Salwinder Singh during his custody with the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“The revelations are too grave and serious and Badals must come out with an answer”, he said, hoping that the NIA may expand the scope of the inquiry to ensure that people who have helped and patronised the SP are also investigated, exposed and held responsible.
Reacting to the media reports wherein the detained SP has revealed to the NIA that he used to get paid in diamonds for facilitating the drug smuggling into india by the international smugglers, Capt Amarinder said, these were serious revelations and the Badals cannot wash off their hands by simply putting the onus on the centre and the union home ministry.
“The rot certainly lies within the Punjab police as much as it lies elsewhere”, the PCC president remarked, while pointing out, “the SP is an employee of the home department which is headed by Sukhbir Badal and he must own responsibility for it”. He pointed out, the SP has been posted in the area for a long time and how come that he went on indulging in all this without getting noticed.
“What the SP is reported to have indulged in is the direct outcome of the systematic undermining of the police hierarchical system by the Akalis”, Capt Amarinder remarked, saying, when the police officials are made accountable to jathedars instead of their own senior officers, the system is bound to collapse and SP Salwinder is only a system of this scourge as the rot lies much deeper.
The former Chief Minister said, the father-son duo cannot escape responsibility by shooting off letters to the Prime Minister and Home Minister in a clear bid to shift the blame. “Either all this has been happening with their knowledge and consent or they have no idea as what is happening in their state”, he observed, adding, “in any case they are guilty of omission or commission for which they must be held accountable”.
