Badal flays Punjab Congress

Yesterday, Punjab Congress leaders sought Chidambaram's urgent intervention to stop the Akali-BJP government from "harassing and intimidating" their workers.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of Sangat Darshan programme here, Badal claimed the state Congress leadership was unnecessarily making a hue and cry over the issue and their meeting with Chidambaram over it was just a "gimmick".

As against 20,000 cases of vendetta alleged by the state Congress, Badal said it could point at only 39 cases against Congress workers with nothing to do with vendetta.

"In the absence of any tangible issue against the state government, the Congress leadership was trying to mislead the people by resorting to such cheap tactics", Badal claimed.

Replying to a query on the Congress' opposition to the construction of a memorial to Operation Blue Star, he alleged it was part of the Congress' strategy of "divide and rule" to attain power in the state.

His government was committed to maintaining communal harmony, peace and amity in the state but the Congress leaders were allegedly insistent on disturbing the congenial atmosphere in the state by raising this issue for political mileage, Badal averred.

Accusing it of meeting out a shabby treatment to Punjab, Badal charged the Union government of framing policies to deliberately exclude the state from getting its benefits.