Bathinda, May 14, 2019: Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi had sprinkled salt on the wounds of Sikhs by giving a clean chit to her brother Rahul Gandhi instead of apologising to Punjabis for the sins of the Congress party including justifying the 1984 genocide against the Sikh community.
In a statement here, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said Priyanka claimed that her brother was engaged in “sachai ki rajniti”. Asking Priyanka if justification of 1984 genocide with remarks like “hua to hua” was politics of truth, Mrs Badal said it was condemnable that the Congress leader had failed to apologise for the actions of her party men. “It is even more condemnable that Priyanka did not deem it fit to utter a single word of regret for her party and family’s role in the 1984 Sikh genocide or the attack on Sri Harmandar Sahib and destruction of Sri Akal Takth Sahib”.
The union minister said it was also shocking that Priyanka Gandhi was talking about “niradar of Sri Guru Granth Sahib”. She said Priyanka should know that her grand mother Indira Gandhi gave orders for execution of Operation Bluestar during the course of which hundreds of saroops of holy scripture were destroyed. “Priyanka should know that 80 cases of beadbi have occurred during the last two years of Congress rule with one sacrilege taking place two days back at Malerkotla. “It seems Priyanka like her brother Rahul who earlier announced 70 per cent of our youth are drug addicts also believes in reading out from a prepared speech only. If Priyanka was really sincere about Punjab she would have asked Capt Amarinder why 1500 farmers had committed suicide in two years? Why 550 youth had died of drug overdose in his regime? She should have met these victim families and wiped their tears instead of mounting Congress lies”, she added.
The union minister said Priyanka Gandhi had also become a “bhagidar” in the lies being uttered by the Congress government in Punjab by claiming that it had waived off farmer loans as promised and was following the Punjab model in other Congress led States. She said Punjabis knew the truth of this claim and would not be swayed by white lies.
Asserting that Congress promises did not hold any value, Mrs Badal said just as the party was talking about giving Rs 72,000 crore assured income per annum to the poor it had promised to waive off complete farmer loans of Rs 90,000 crore in Punjab. Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh even promised on the holy Charan of Dashmesh Pita Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji to keep the promises made to the people but failed to do so. We can’t believe in any Congress promise now”, she added.
Speaking about CM Capt Amarinder Singh calling her arrogant, Mrs Badal said the CM had got rattled because she had exposed him for not keeping the promises made to the people despite taking a holy oath on Gutka Sahib. “I have very humbly asked Raja Sahib why he has not reached out to distressed farmers in Mandis? Why he has not listened to the plight of thousands of poor who are receiving inflated power bills? But it seems he is not interested in public welfare and only interested in keening his ‘kursi’ safe by defending the Gandhi family”, Mrs. Badal added.