'Restore Fakhr-e-Quam title on Parkash Singh Badal', SAD appeals to Akal Takht

Muktsar, Jan 14 (PTI) The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday appealed to the Akal Takht Jathedar to restore the 'Fakhr-e-Quam' title bestowed on former Punjab chief minister late Parkash Singh Badal.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal attacked the "anti-panthic forces" and "agencies" for earlier targeting his father Parkash Singh Badal and now him, alleging that they had only one target -- to wipe out the name of the Badal family and the Akali Dal.

Sukhbir Badal was holding his first political conference on the occasion of Maghi Mela after the Akal Takht declared him "tankhaiya" (guilty of religious misconduct) on August 30 last year, and pronounced religious punishment on December 2 for the "mistakes" committed by the SAD and its government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.

The SAD working committee on January 11 accepted Sukhbir Badal's resignation as party president.

At the conference, the Akali Dal passed a resolution, appealing to the Akal Takht Jathedar to reconsider its decision to take back the 'Fakhr-e-Quam' title bestowed on Parkash Singh Badal.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Rgahbir Singh, while pronouncing the edict on December 2 last year, had announced to withdraw the 'Fakhre-e-Quam' title bestowed upon the former chief minister.

Stating that his father served the 104-year-old SAD for 70 years, Sukhbir Badal said, "In the last 10 years, anti-Panthic forces, agencies had only one target and that was Badal saab. He is no more now. So now they have started targeting me. They had only one target -- to wipe out the names of the Badal family and Akali Dal." Asking the people to tell if the former chief minister who served them for 70 years had committed any "sin", Sukhbir said the only "sin" his father committed was going to jail for 18 years for the people of Punjab, besides protesting against the Emergency and fighting for the creation of a Punjabi 'Suba'.

"It is painful that these people from agencies say 'Badal saab backstabbed the Sikh community'," Sukhbir Badal said, adding that his father committed his entire life to the community.

"These people who call themselves Sikhs on Facebook are not Sikhs. They are 'kaum de gaddar' (traitors of the Sikh community)," the SAD leader said targeting his opponents.

Apparently targeting jailed radical leader and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, Sukhbir Badal reminded the gathering that the radical leader's name figured in the murder case of Sikh activist Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau.

"Whom do you want to give Punjab's leadership," he asked.

Police had claimed that Hari Nau, who was killed in October last year, was murdered at the behest of the Khadoor Sahib MP.

Making a fervent appeal to the people of Punjab to repose trust in SAD, Sukhbir Badal said he was ready to sacrifice his life for the "Panth" as well as for peace and progress of Punjab.

"Today, the need of the hour is to strengthen our 'kaum' and the SAD alone can do this. I vow to you that like Parkash Singh Badal, I will do everything in my capacity for the welfare of the people. Even if I have to sacrifice myself, I will do so for the sake of Punjab, Punjabiyat and the Khalsa Panth," Sukhbir Badal said.

He also cautioned the "Panth" and Punjab against the politics of communal divisiveness and bloodshed of Punjabi youth, asserting that he would never flinch from the path of peace and communal harmony shown by the great gurus, saints and seers.

He asserted that he had already owned full responsibility on behalf of the party so that the people of the state could move forward into a future full of hope, peace and prosperity for the youth.

"The alternative agenda being offered by some so-called Panthic outfits is to push the state, especially its youth, back into the jaws of fratricidal bloodshed and elimination of Sikh youth in fake encounters," he claimed.

The former SAD chief also made it clear that the leader of a faction which opened its "political shop" on Tuesday had launched a campaign against drugs, but his own family member was caught with narcotics.

"They want to instigate the youth and foment trouble to meet their own ends. We want to save the future generation, not put it in peril," he said.

The SAD leader was referring to supporters of Amritpal Singh, who on Tuesday floated a regional political outfit -- Akali Dal Waris Punjab De -- on the occasion of Maghi Mela.

Sukhbir Badal also spoke of how he decided to take the onus for all the perceived charges of wrongdoings against him by the rebel Akali group, even though he had answers to everything.

"My thought process was that if this can put a lid to the campaign unleashed against SAD by the anti-Panthic forces, so be it. But these forces were not happy by this submission also. Their next target was to kill me and I was saved only by the grace of the almighty," he claimed. PTI CHS ARI