Chandigarh October 24, 2019: Shiromani Akali Dal President Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal today lashed out against the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for “ venting his anger and frustration over his poll defeat in Dakha” against the SAD’ Senior Vice President Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema and withdrawing a bulk of the security provided to him.
Earlier in the day, the Punjab government withdrew five of the seven security personnel detailed with Dr Cheema. The decision came at the peak of the counting of the by-elections in the state at the end of which the ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in Dakha assembly constituency. Dr Cheema was the SAD’s poll in-charge there.
Badal said that he apprehended that the CM deliberately wanted to expose his opponent’s life to danger as he felt helpless in dealing with the challenge mounted by the SAD leadership and workers to the wrong and anti-people policies of the Congress government. The Akali leader apprehended that more Akali leaders could become the target of Amarinder’s politics of personal and political vendetta but added,”The Akali warriors have faced these cheap and petty tactics of successive Congress governments in the past and will continue to do so to defend the people’s rights in future also. We thrive on challenges and crises.”
Badal said that if any harm came to the Akali leaders’ life as a result of the government’s vengeful decision, the Chief Minister would be held directly and squarely responsible for it.
“The Chief Minister perhaps could not have issued a stronger endorsement and acknowledgement of the bravery with which the party’s leadership and rank and file have stood up to the Congress government’s repression and the brazen resort of the present regime to the misuse of the state machinery and other malpractices during the campaign leading up to the by-elections. Instead of acknowledging his government’s utter incompetence and non-performance that has alienated the people of the state from his party and government, Captain Singh has stooped to ugly tactics unworthy of someone holding the high and august office of the Chief Minister of Punjab,” said Mr Badal in a strongly worded statement here this afternoon.
Mr Badal said that neither the party nor Dr Cheema had ever sought any security cover from the government for the SAD senior Vice President and the security provided to him was on the basis of the threat perception to his life as per the government’s own professional intelligence reports. Withdrawing the security in the wake the Congress’s humiliating defeat at Dakha shows how personal pique born out of political desperation has been allowed to overshadow the intelligence reports of the government’s own intelligence apparatus.
This also reveals the scant respect the Chief Minister and those around him have for human life, said the former Deputy Chief Minister. Mr Badal warned the Chief Minister of dire consequences if any harm came to Dr Cheema as a consequence of the government’s decision.