In a show of strength during its public rally at Maur Mandi on Thursday, Shiromani Akali Dal, a key ally of the NDA, has set the political agenda for the coming Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called upon the people to give a befitting reply to the “discriminatory and apathetic attitude” of the Congress-led UPA Government by showing them the door to install the NDA Government at the Centre for heralding a new era of prosperity and overall development in the country in general and Punjab in particular.
“The upbeat mood of the people in today’s rally is a prophecy for the UPA Government that its days are numbered, as its fall is imminent under its own weight due to rampant corruption, uncontrollable inflation and autocratic style of functioning resulting in ill-conceived anti-people decisions,” Badal said.
Badal blamed the Centre for usurping the State’s legitimate powers to its own advantage diluting the federal structure of the country. He emphasised the need that States should be given full autonomy at least free hand in sorting out State-related issues like sanctioning of link roads and drinking water schemes, among others.
“The deliberate denial of drought package to Punjab is a testimony towards Centre’s step-motherly treatment to the State as the other States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Odisha had been allowed this package while we had been deliberately kept out on the pretext that the State Government had not requested the Centre to send a special team to assess the damage,” Badal added.
Lamenting that with Congress at the helm of affairs, the country was heading for dark days, Badal said that every section of the society was feeling helpless as they have imposed taxes on the poorest of the poor giving relief to the multinational companies and big industrial houses.
Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal felicitated the people of Maur constituency for scuttling the game of Congress and its B team – People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) – by electing SAD nominee Janmeja Singh Sekhon adding that this largest ever rally in the history of Maur gives a unmistakable message that days of Congress party and its proxy parties were over in Punjab.
Training her guns against the UPA Government, Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that instead of formulating any pro-people policy the most corrupt Congress-led UPA Government has plundered Rs 4.60 lakh crore through the scams like 2G, CWG, Adarsh society and now the Coalgate.
Making a scathing attack on the PPP leader Manpreet Singh Badal, Harsimrat said that this “B” team of the Congress has been taught a lesson by the people of Punjab as all of its candidates were poorly defeated in the State Assembly elections.
She urged the people to strengthen the hands of the SAD-BJP combine by ensuring that the alliance wins all the 13 Lok Sabha seats of the state in coming Parliament elections.
Terming the UPA as the most corrupt Government of the country, State Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that in the last eight years of their ‘misrule’ the Ministers of this Government have plundered far more wealth than what the Britishers had done in the tenure of imperialism spanning for around 200 years.
Referring Manpreet as a traitor, Majithia said that by joining hands with the Congress in a clandestine manner the PPP leader has deceived the panth, however, the voters of Punjab were wise enough to teach him a lesson for the treachery against SAD during the assembly elections.
