Learn basics of 'Janta Darbar' from me: Badal to Kejriwal

Quipping on Arvind Kejriwal's alleged failure to hold 'Janta Darbar' for redressing the grievances of people, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that he should learn the basics of this programme from him.

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

Addressing the gathering during 'Sangat Darshan' programme of Lambi assembly segment here, Badal said that Delhi Chief Minister has failed because it could be successfully held by only those public representatives, who were well aware of the problems of the masses.

He said that there was a huge difference between 'Sangat Darshan' and 'Janta Darbar' as in the former the public representatives go to the people whereas in the 'Darbar' the people go to the rulers.

Taking a strong exception to the nomenclature of 'Janta Darbar', Badal said that the Darbars were held by the Kings whereas in Democracy 'Sangat Darshans' were conducted by the representatives of people for the prompt solution of public grievances.

Describing Kejriwal as the "creation of media", Badal said that it was ironical that the media was giving huge coverage to the meager subsidies announced by the Delhi Chief Minister whereas they were not throwing any light on the Rs 6000 crore subsidy annually given by the Punjab government to bail out the farmers of the state.

He bemoaned that for the reasons best known to them, the media was shying away from highlighting the pro-poor welfare schemes of the state government like the Atta-Dal, Hargobind Khurana, Mai Bhago Istri Vidya and others.

Badal claimed that every programme of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was more or less an emulation of the policies and programmes started by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) decades back but unfortunately they have not been given the credit for taking these pro-people initiatives.

Lashing out at the Congress led UPA government, the Chief Minister said that this government would go down in the annals of the Indian polity as the "most corrupt and inefficient government".

Making a scathing attack on the Congress leaders, he said that a mad race was going on between the entire Congress leadership to score brownie points before the Nehru-Gandhi scion.

"Can the Congress leaders tell me what was the ability of Rahul Gandhi except the fact that he was a member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty," questioned Badal.