Jalandhar: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today received a major boost in the Doaba region with former Punjab Pradesh Congress president and former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee joining the party in the presence of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Mr Kaypee was also nominated as the party candidate of the SAD from this reserved constituency on the occasion.
Asserting that Mr Kaypee was an upright politician who had made an immense contribution to civil society as well as the Dalit Samaj, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the SAD will gain immensely due to the credibility Mr Kaypee has in this constituency”.
Speaking at the function held at his residence to mark the occasion, Mr Kaypee said he was impressed by the record infrastructure development carried out by Mr Sukhbir Badal during the erstwhile SAD led government. He said he had chosen to join the SAD because it alone was committed to resolving the pending issues of Punjab. “Moreover I feel in today’s political environment only a regional party can address the aspirations of Punjabis”.
The SAD president also castigated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) policy of targeting minorities and said the Prime Minister should not have given an anti-minority statement. He said the BJP policy of pitting one religious community to fight against another was not in the interest of the nation. “This nation belongs to everyone. Even if there is only one person of a particular religion in the country he has the same right as those who are in the majority”. Mr Badal also had a message for all national parties on the occasion stating “all parties should regard this country as everyone’s and not of one community alone. The country cannot develop otherwise”, he added.
The SAD president said unlike Delhi based parties, who were pitting one religion against the other to secure votes, the SAD never allowed this to happen in Punjab. “The BJP should learn from the SAD. Whenever we were in government, we had only one agenda. Peace and communal harmony. This is the reason why people from all religious denominations considered former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to be one of their own. This is the level of trust members of different religious denominations have in the SAD``.
Mr Badal also spoke on how development occurred in Punjab only when the SAD was in power. “See around you – all flyovers, road extensions and modern sewerage facilities came about during the earlier SAD government”. He said the same was the case in other parts of the State also. He also spoke on how the SAD had ameliorated the lot of each section of society be it farmers who were given free power supply and irrigation facilities, the poor who were extended social welfare benefits like aata-daal, shagun and old age pension and the ordinary man who was given facilities like Sewa Kendras besides 200 units of power free of cost.
Senior leader Gurpartap Singh Wadala also spoke on the occasion and highlighted how the Congress had done injustice to Kaypee by giving the party ticket to a tainted leader – Charanjit Singh Channi. Other senior leaders present on the occasion included Kulwant Singh Manan, Baldev Singh Khaira, Iqbal Singh Dhindsa and Gurdev Kaur Sangha.