Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
MUST BREAK SINFUL AND CRIMINAL SILENCE OVER THIS ISSUE
Chandigarh April 16 – The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and the President Shiromani Akali Dal Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today blasted the AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal for the latter’s “brazen opposition to Punjab on the SYL issue” through the affidavit submitted by the Delhi state government in the Supreme Court. He dared the Delhi Chief Minister to come to Punjab and speak the same words which he has spoken in Delhi.
The SAD President also asked Kejriwal to state categorically what his views and stand were on the Riprarian Principle on the rights of claimant on river waters.
Mr Sukhbir Singh asked Kejriwal to break his “criminal and sinful silence over the affidavit which he had submitted through his government in the Supreme Court, challenging Punjab’s claims on the river waters”. The affidavit speaks about Punjab’s demands as if these were anti-national.
“It is painful that whenever Punjab seeks justice, people like Kejriwal rush to declare us anti-national. Kejriwal Government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court describes Punjab’s demand as “divisive and dangerous to the unity and the integrity of the country. In this, Kejriwal is treading the path of Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He has even implicitly threatened Punjabis by declaring in the same affidavit that they (the Punjabis) need to be reminded that the constitution was strong enough to safeguard the unity and the integrity of the country. Is Kejriwal reminding this to the patriotic people of Punjab or to Pakistan? “said Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal.
“The SYL is a death-warrant for Punjab. There is no need to build it when even the issue of the states’ rights over river waters had not been decided. It cannot be built and we will never allow it to be constructed. Every Punjabi stands solidly behind the bill passed by the state assembly about the lands on which the SYL had been built,” said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal in a statement here.
The Deputy Chief Minister also ridiculed Kejriwal’s comment that he could not speak on the issue since the matter was sub-judice. “There is no Supreme Court bar on Kejriwal about his reiterating before the people what his government had already said in the SC through a formal affidavit in which Kejriwal government had gone to the extent of calling Punjab’s stand a threat to national unity and integrity,” said Mr Sukhbir Singh.
Mr Badal also asked the Delhi Chief Minister to stop behaving like a political chameleon , changing his colours and stand on Punjab’s interests on a minute to minute basis to suit his selfish interests. “Kejriwal must not to play with the sentiments of the Punjabis through his brazen political hypocrisy on the issue. “When he was in Punjab, he pretended to fully support Punjab’s demand and even declared that Punjab’s river waters belonged to Punjab alone. But as soon as he left the state and entered Delhi, he made a complete and ridiculous somersault and declared that waters of Punjab belonged to all other states too, river water being a common national asset. This is shocking and unbelievable, especially as it comes from a person holding the high office of Chief Minister and that too in a state comprising the national capital,” said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal in his statement.
