Amritsar Dec 21 PTI Shiromani Akali Dal SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged on Tuesday that an FIR lodged against his party colleague Bikram Singh Majithia was based on a brazenly false case and warned those abusing their official positions and playing havoc with the rule of law to be ready to face legal consequencesHe further said the SAD accepts the challenge of the false case against Majithia who has been booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act based on the status report of the anti-drug Special Task Force STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu on a drug racket operating in Punjab It was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018Majithia is the brother-in-law of Sukhbir Singh BadalAnyone who joins the SAD is fully prepared to face and defeat repression We will not be cowed down by these pygmies They have invited their own doom by resorting to lies and abusing their official positions The SAD will fight them in the court as well as in the court of the people Badal saidHe said it is public knowledge how Siddharth Chattopadhyaya has been rewarded with the post of the director general of police DGP in Punjab in return for his promise to carry forward the Congress governments agenda of vendetta politicsSeveral police officers were offered allurements as well as arm-twisted to somehow book Akali leaders in false cases But most of them refused Finally the DGP used an almost defunct and rarely used police station to get his unlawful order implemented In the end it was Chattopadhyaya versus his own law-abiding officers Badal saidIn Chandigarh the SAD accused the Punjab government of indulging in vendetta politics by registering a false case against former minister Majithia after failing to implicate the top Akali leadership in sacrilege cases as well as to divert attention from its failure in taking action in the case of heinous incident of sacrilege bid at the Golden Temple in AmritsarParty leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema said the Congress government has chosen to file a fabricated case against Majithia after throwing all principles of law and justice to the windsThey asserted that the case was lodged against Majithia in utter frustration after all attempts to make some charge stick against the top SAD leadership in sacrilege cases failedIn Amritsar Badal came down heavily on the state government for its brazen politics over the sensitive issue of sacrilege of sacred Sikh scripturesHe said that unlike the Congress the SAD will not indulge in politics over sacrilege issues because for us the great Guru Sahiban and their holy scriptures are far far above anything else in lifeHe warned against a deep-rooted conspiracy to vitiate the atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in PunjabSachkhand Shri Harmandar Sahib is a sacred shrine where people from all religions come to pay obeisance It is a shrine of peace and communal brotherhood But someone is clearly not happy about it and is conspiring both against this sacred ideal and against peace in Punjab Badal said PTI JMS CHS VSD RC

Chandigarh Nov 19 PTI Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modis announcement of repealing three contentious farm laws and said rightful agitations have always succeeded Modi on Friday announced that the government has decided to repeal the three farm laws which were at the centre of protests by farmers for the past year Wholeheartedly welcome the decision on repeal of 3 farming Black Laws AkaliDal is particularly grateful that Guru Nanak Dev Jis Parkash Purb was chosen to announce it I hope this decision unites the nation which has seen much temper due to the protests Badal said in a tweet I only wish the Prime Minister would have taken the decision when AkaliDal had raised the issue at the time of enactment of these FarmLaws A lot would have been different then Now I urge PMOIndia to take it forward by withdrawing the cases against farmers said Badal in another tweet Later Badal in Maur said rightful agitations always succeeded and the success of the agitation represented the victory of each and every household in Punjab The Shiromani Akali Dal chief who attended the ceremony to mark the culmination of an akhand path on the occasion of Gurpurab at the Tittarsar Sahib gurdwara here said Punjabis had proved their resolve by uniting as one against the black laws forcing the Centre to repeal them Badal said the victory had however come at a great loss We have lost over 700 farmers who were martyred during the course of this agitation Farmers braved all odds during the last one year be it the inclement weather to pressure to lift their dharna They however stood their ground and continued the democratic protest for their rights which has been recognised as one of the most peaceful protests the world over he said Asked whether there was any possibility of forging alliance again with the BJP Badal ruled it out and said We have a tie-up with the BSP and that will continue Meanwhile former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal dubbed Modis announcement as a victory of farmers We have received apaar baksheesh of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji on his Parkash Purab by the repeal of 3 farm laws Its a victory of farmers who withstood inclement weather repression defamation but stood strong I salute the 700 farmers who sacrificed their lives for this cause she said in a tweet Hundreds of farmers have been camping at three Delhi borders since last November with the demand that the government repeal the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce Promotion and Facilitation Act 2020 Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities Amendment Act 2020 They have also been demanding a new law to guarantee the minimum support price MSP for crops PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Nov 18 PTI Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday hit out at Punjab Transport Minister Amarinder Singh Raja Warring for cancelling bus permits saying his transport company does not owe a single rupee to the state government His statement came a day after the state transport department cancelled a total of 125buspermits including 31 owned by Badal and his family members Warring had said the action was necessitated on account of non-payment of due taxes Addressing the media here SAD chief Badal said the bus permits of his transport company had been cancelled even without issuing any notice to it We do not owe even 1 rupee in taxes to the Punjab government In direct contrast companies of the Congress leaders are defaulters but are not being proceeded against The state is also owed Rs 280 crore in taxes from buses of the state transport undertaking Only we have been penalised said Badal Replying to a question whether his wife and former Union minister will contest the 2022 Punjab assembly polls Badal said Harsimrat Kaur Badal is not going to fight the assembly polls Asked whether Parkash Singh Badal will fight the polls Sukhbir Badal said We will take the decision at an appropriate time Badal also launched a frontal attack on Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi accusing him of being the biggest illegal coloniser in the state and was allegedly responsible for the mushrooming of illegal colonies in the Kharar-Ropar belt Badal further alleged that the Chief Minister was known to patronise illegal colonies as well as the sand mafia This is the reason why Charanjit Channi has played a farce on the people in the name of reducing sand prices People are not getting sand at Rs 5 per cubic feet as announced by the chief minister anywhere but the state exchequer has lost Rs 50 crore advertising this falsehood he alleged Replying to a query on a special task force STF report on drugs Badal said No one is stopping the Punjab government from nabbing the drug lords He said it was strange that instead of arresting the drug lords the Congress government was politicising the issue in the same manner as it had done in the 2015 sacrilege case Badal also dared the government to present a single shred of evidence against him in the sacrilege case alleging the government was working overtime to frame him in the case On the occasion Congress leader Anish Sidana joined the Akali Dal in the presence of Badal Sidana was Congress partys intellectual cell president PTI CHS VSD HDA

Chandigarh Sep 22 PTI Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday asked the Congress to announce its CM face for the next years Assembly polls saying people want to know who is their real leader The statement came two days after the Congress said it will fight the Punjab elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu and both will their faces The Congress went into damage control after it came under attack from various parties over the statement of its general secretary Harish Rawat that the party would go to polls with Sidhu as it face First the Congress high command announced one name but when an objection was raised it has now announced two names Soon there may be three leaders who will be given this assignment Punjabis want to know who is the real leader Badal said in a statement here Badal said all this proved that the fight in the Congress had nothing to do with any public issue but it was for the top post The fight was also for the spoils of power While the outgoing leadership has looted the state the incoming one wants to grab the chance to do the same in the next three months he alleged The truth is that the entire Congress party is responsible for failing Punjabis he said Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi were behind the partys election manifesto and had endorsed all promises made by former chief minister Amarinder Singh he stated None of these promises have been honoured Instead of doing this the Congress now wants to befool people with a change of guard Punjabis are not so foolish They will give a befitting answer to the Congress in the 2022 Assembly elections he said Meanwhile Congressman and entrepreneur Jagdev Singh Boparai joined the Akali Dal in the presence of Badal PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK