Take lessons from me on public darbar: Badal to Kejriwal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday took a dig at the chaos at the 'Janata Durbar' of his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and advised the AAP leader to take some lessons from him.

Badal was addressing a gathering in Lohara village in his Lambi assembly constituency in Muktsar district, 250 km from here.

"Kejriwal should learn the basics of this programme from me as I have been holding the 'Sangat Darshan' ever since the inception of my political career," Badal said.

Pointing to the failure of Kejriwal to hold the 'Janata Durbar' to redress public grievances, Badal said: "Kejriwal failed because this interactive programme for redressing public complaints could be successfully held by only those public representatives who are well aware of the problems of the masses."

"There is a huge difference between 'Sangat Darshan' and 'Janata Darbar' as in the former, public representatives go to the people whereas in the latter people go to the rulers.

"Darbars were held by kings, whereas in a democracy Sangat Darshans are conducted by representatives of people for prompt solution to public grievances," Badal said.

Badal described Kejriwal as a creation of the media.

He said it was ironical that the media was giving huge coverage to the meagre subsidies announced by the Delhi chief minister whereas it was not throwing any light on the Rs.6,000 crore subsidy given by the Punjab government annually to bail out farmers of the state.

He said none of the pro-people policies of the Punjab government were being projected by the media while a hype was being built around Kejriwal.

"It is on record that every programme of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was more or less an emulation of the policies and programmes started by the Shiromani Akali Dal decades back but unfortunately they have not been given credit for such pro-people initiatives," he said.