Punjab will benefit most if Indo-Pak relations improve: Badal

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lahore visit as a "bold" and "sagacious" move, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal today said his state would benefit the most if Indo-Pak relations improve.
"The initiative of visiting Lahore by Prime Minister during his return journey from Kabul was a bold and sagacious move," Badal said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a function here, he said that in order to normalise relations between the two neighbouring countries, both sides must resolve their long pending problems through negotiations and dialogue process.
The 88-year-old five-time Chief Minister also said, "Punjab will benefit most and will be the maximum gainer if Indo-Pak relations improve."

"In that scenario, the trade will get a big boost and we will definitely benefit from that."
On Friday, Prime Minister Modi had returned home from his three-nation visit which took him to Russia, Afghanistan and a surprise stop-over in Pakistan.

The two-and-a-half hour visit to the neighbouring nation was first by an Indian Prime Minister in nearly 12 years.
The Prime Minister held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during which they decided to open ways for peace for the "larger good" of the people of the two countries.
Meanwhile, in his reply to a question regarding political leaders joining new parties in Punjab recently, ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, Badal said "this change or defection is not due to any ideology or change of heart but is the result of local complaints of such leaders against their mother parties (parties which they dump)."

"It does not lead to any substantial change in any party's vote bank," he pointed out.
Badal expressed his displeasure with the practice of raking up petty and personal issues by various leaders in an effort to make narrow political gains.
Without naming anyone, he categorically said, the trend must stop as early as possible.
Badal alleged that Amarinder's resignation was aimed at
"deriving political benefits from this sensitive issue, rather than safeguarding the interests of the state".
He claimed that it was an "open secret" that Amarinder was desirous of contesting the upcoming state Assembly polls and that is why he had resigned from Lok Sabha on the pretext of the Supreme Court verdict "to mislead the people".

"Captain (Amarinder) wants to attain the status of a martyr by smearing a drop of blood on his fingertip whereas, it is a fact that he was part and parcel of the sinister move to dig the SYL canal," Badal added.
Recalling the "grave conspiracy conceived by the Congress to divest the state of its legitimate share of river waters", the Chief Minister held the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi responsible for Punjab's crisis as she had "forced" the former Congress chief minister of the state Darbara Singh to sign an agreement to give waters to Haryana.
Assailing the AAP, Badal said it was a party with a "dual face".

He alleged that the AAP government in Delhi had submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court against Punjab on the SYL issue, adding that disguised in the robe of the 'aam aadmi' (common man), the party was "working overtime" against the interests of the state.
Taking a dig at those leaving the SAD "for poll tickets from other parties", Badal said these "fugitives" must learn a lesson from former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who had gone into "political oblivion" ever since he "ditched" the Akali Dal.
The chief minister exhorted the people to teach the defectors a lesson by rejecting them in the electoral race.