Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh October 31 – Former Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Parkash
Singh Badal today expressed grave concern over the situation in the
state fast slipping towards complete and dangerous anarchy.”
“In less than nine months, they have ruined the hard earned
atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in the state. It is jungle
raj here with lawless elements free to take law into their own
hands.”
“Political assassinations and communal murders in Punjab are pushing
the state towards the edge of a dangerous precipice.” He described
the situation as “extremely dangerous ,” he said.
He appealed to the people of Punjab to maintain peace at all costs and
not to allow the age-old bonds between brotherly communities to be
disturbed.
Mr Badal said that the main reason for this drastic deterioration in
the situation was that “peace and communal harmony do not even figure
among the priorities of the government.This has resulted in a complete
collapse of administration with peace and communal harmony being the
worst casualties.”
Mr Badal Strongly condemned the assassination of Vipan Sharma,
in Amritsar and Harkirat Singh, spouse of an Akali Sarpanch yesterday
and assault on the Amarjot Singh Babbehali, Akali leaders’ G S
Babbehali’s son, today and other recent incidents of violence in the
state, describing these as links in the long chain of bitterness and
violence unleashed by the present regime
The former chief minister said that maintenance of peace and
preserving communal harmony require a combination of political will
and administrative determination. Both seem conspicuous by their
absence in Punjab today.” “During my tenure as Chief Minister, I began
and ended every day in office by keeping a close watch on threats to
peace and communal harmony and reaffirming my government’s commitment
to these sacred ideals. But in the last nine months, I have not
heard of a single occasion when the political leadership and the top
civil and police administration in the state got together to review
the situation in this regard.”
The former Chief Minister expressed deep concern over the spate of
communally inspired incidents and said that these posed a serious
threat to peace in the state.
