Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badalsaid chief minister Bhagwant Mann should own responsibility for failing in his duty to maintain law and order and ensuring no one was allowed to disturb communal harmony in the State.
In a statement here, the SAD President said instead of instilling confidence in Punjabis by taking appropriate steps, the chief minister had fled the State to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat along with his cabinet. Asserting that Punjabis had given a massive mandate to AAP to bring about positive change and not use the State’s resources to expand AAP’s influence across the country and paralyze governance in Punjab, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “never in the history of the State had such a situation arose when an elected government has forsaken its people and allowed the State to slip into anarchy”.
Mr Badal said “no one is feeling safe in Punjab today. Targeted killings are an everyday event with an Akali worker gunned down near Batala today. Earlier we have witnessed the gruesome murder of youth icon Sidhu Moosewala, RPG attack on the Punjab Police Intelligence headquarter, Hindu – Sikh clashes and even sensational escape of gangster Deepak Tinu from police custody. The AAP government has in eight months taken the State back by twenty years with people now being forced to remember the era of darkness of the 1980’s which was also heralded by the breakdown of law and order and communal disturbances”.