Badal slams Congress for demanding President's rule in Punjab

By PTI

Updated: Thursday, May 21, 2015, 20:30 [IST]

Dinanagar (Pb), May 21: Hitting out at the Congress for demanding President's rule in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that the demand of the opposition was "totally baseless, absurd and without any legal sanctity."

"The Congress party is indulging in petty politics just for the sake of opposing the SAD-BJP alliance government. The Congress has always resorted to such cheap tactics to hit out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) time and again but the wise people of Punjab have always foiled such attempts made by the Congress and its leaders," he said.

"The demand for President's rule is totally baseless, absurd and without any legal sanctity," Badal said at a function to celebrate 475th birth anniversary of medieval Rajput warrior king Maharana Pratap here.

Yesterday, top Punjab Congress leaders had met President Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi and sought immediate dismissal of the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state and imposition of Central rule over alleged deterioration of law and order.

Punjab Congress President Pratap Singh Bajwa, who was part of the delegation, had later told reporters that "the people in the state are reeling under Goonda Raj of the government and anyone who raises voice is suppressed with strong arm tactics of the police which is acting as a private militia of the government".

"We have requested the President to seek a report from the Centre about the state of affairs in Punjab and impose President's rule under Article 356," Bajwa had said yesterday.

The CM said that "Bajwa was trounced by the people during the last year's Lok Sabha polls and he even lost from the assembly segment represented by his wife."

Earlier addressing the gathering, the five-time Chief Minister slammed the successive Congress governments at the Centre for their alleged anti-farmer stance. He said that due to the regressive policies of these Congress governments, the farmers were reeling under heavy debt due to which they were now forced to commit suicide.

PTI