Punjab is the fit case for imposing president rule: Channi

Chandigarh: The Congress Legislature Party leader Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today questioned deafening silence of the Punjab Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal on the use of Article 356 by the Narendra Modi government to dismiss the Congress government in Uttrakhand.

In a statement, Mr Channi reminded Mr Badal that his party has all along been opposed to the use of this article to dismiss the state government and been demanding that this clause must be removed from the constitution. He said it was ironic that both the Chief Minister and the Akali Dal President Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal have preferred to keep their mouths sealed on the blatant misuse of this constitutional clause to impose President’s rule in Uttrakhand.

He pointed out that the judicial intervention had proved that the action by the centre was wrong. The Akali Dal, being the alliance partner of the BJP, was a party to this decision. He said Mr Badal must clarify his party position in case he had not forgotten the earlier stand of the party on Article 356. He blasted Mr Badal for resorting to politics of opportunism rather than being committed to any principles.

In this regard, he also referred to the debate on intolerance in the context of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University controversy and the attempt to saffronise education by changing history to suit the mythology in which the Sangh Parivar believes.

Mr Channi asked Mr Badal as to what were his views on the so called cultural homogenization agenda of the Sangh Parivar that strikes at the very roots of the cultural diversity. He said the Akali Dal and Mr Badal had been hammering on the separate identity of the Sikhs but its alliance partner’s agenda was just the opposite.

He challenged Mr Badal to speak up on this crucial issue of misuse of Article 356 in Uttrakhand in case he still had any iota of commitment left to the ideological position that the Akali Dal has been taking.

The CLP chief the Modi government had stooped too low to strike at the non-BJP governments in states and the Akali Dal’s silence amounted to tacit approval to the actions of the Modi government in which the party was the partner.

Channi further said that Instead Punjab is the fit case for imposing president rule because of gross misrule of this present regime. The state is facing acute financial bankruptcy, youth is on drugs, state sponsored mafia is ruling, gang lords are roaming freely, farmers suicide is on rise, agriculture is finishing, no new industry has come in the state in the last ten years and many others prevalent issues.