Punjab government decision to ban the proposed peaceful Pol Khol rally at Faridkot “ broad daylight murder of democracy” : Badal

Chandigarh/ Bathinda September 14 – Former Punjab Chief minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal today described as “ broad daylight murder of democracy” the Punjab government decision to ban the proposed peaceful Pol Khol rally at Faridkot scheduled for September 16.Meannwhile, the SAD has decided to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek a review of Government’s ban order and to be allowed to hold the peaceful rally. In a statement here, the Akali stalwart Parkash Singh Badal said that it is “a brazen and cowardly abdication of constitutional responsibility by the state government whose primary duty is to ensure

that no one is allowed to sabotage and disrupt peaceful expression of democratic aspirations of the people and to ensure and safeguard normal democratic activity in the state. The Government has virtually admitted today that the constitutional machinery in Punjab has broken down so much that it cannot even ensure a peaceful democratic

rally by a mainstream political party.” The decision of the Government is reminiscent of the Emergency days of repression and dictatorship, said the Akli leader.

Mr Badal said that it seems the anti-national elements who are the enemies of peace and communal harmony in the state are hell bent upon disrupting the peace and communal harmony of the state. These elements are setting the agenda for Captain Amarinder Singh to follow and he is obliging them by obeying their diktat. This clearly proves the collusion between the Congress and these elements bent upon setting Punjab on fire again. Mr Badal and Mr Suhbir SinghBadal said that the Congress used the

fake and fabricated report of the biased Justice Ranjit Singh Commission to try and defame the SAD and its leadership. The Congress leaders had threatened that the SAD leadership will not be allowed to enter the villages. But the massive response to the SAD-BJP dharnas and the ABohar rally have unnerved the Congress .These enemies of peace colluding with them whom the Congress respectfully addresses as “ radicals” have forced the Capt govt to cancel the peaceful rally at Faridkot in a bid to stop the SAD BJP wave from the start the Congress party and its government had been in league with those trying to defame SAD.With today’s action, it will become clear to the people how the Congress supporting elements opposed to peace and communal harmony in the state. The entire campaign against the SAD is planned, funded, sponsored and executed by the Congress. Today, the cat has come completely out of the bag and their collusion stands revealed“ Coming down heavily against the harsh and repressive measure,

Mr Badal said, “ Suddenly, an incompetent and biased government has brought the memories of the 1980s back , when the Akali morcharoutinely faced such dictatorial and draconian measures. For more 15 years, the SAD-BJP government in Punjab ensured total peace and communal harmony in the state, upholding, safeguarding and ensuring

people’s democratic rights and civil liberties. But with a single stroke the government has pushed Punjab back by 30 years and taken it back to the dark and draconian days of the eighties when the government met the Akali democratic protests with such repressive measures.

“The fact is that the Government has been completely unnerved by the success of SAD-BJP’s peaceful dharnas across the state and by the massive turn out of Punjabis at the Abohar rally. Both the Dharnas and the Abohar rally were organsied in a completely peaceful and democratic manner and there was no threat to peace in either of the

two then. So how come this government has suddenly started seeing a threat to peace in Punjab from normal and routine democratic activity,” asked Mr Badal reacting sharply to the Punjab government’s decision to ban the peaceful rally at Faridkot.

Mr Badal said that this is the first time since the days ofmilitancy that the government in Punjab has clamped down on democratic exercise and stifled the voice of peaceful democratic protest against the government.”This government has virtually surrendered its will to govern and has virtually declared that it is incapable of ensuring peace and communal harmony in the state.”