Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday described the conduct of Wednesday's zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls in the state as "brutal and broad daylight murder of democracy."
He said the wanton lawlessness and criminality witnessed yesterday during the polls should finally open the eyes of those who thought that the SAD's fears of poll violence were just a "ruse."
Badal said September 19, 2018 will be remembered as "one of the darkest days" for democracy in Punjab when the Congress made the state look like Bihar during the latter's worst period.
The former CM said it was "extremely painful and regrettable" that the state election commission completely abdicated its constitutional responsibility yesterday.
"Both the state machinery and the state election commission functioned as an extension of the Congress party during the entire poll process," he said in a statement here.
Badal said not only the mammoth and unprecedented response of Punjabis to the SAD-BJP rally at Faridkot and earlier at Abohar, but also its strong Punjabi and Panthic character had unnerved the Congress and its stooges.
"For these stooges hiding behind Panthic cloaks, yesterday was repayment time for the favours they continue to receive from the Congress government. They carried out poll violence at the behest of the Congress which is keeping them politically afloat for its ultimate anti-Sikh agenda.
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The Congress is providing political cover to the forces inimical to peace and communal harmony. As in the eighties, this nexus is pushing Punjab into the jaws of violence," he said.
Badal said the SAD is their prime target because "our party has always articulated the Sikh and Punjabi cause in a peaceful and democratic way."
"Peace and democracy is at stake in Punjab. The non-performance of the state government and its betrayal to the people of Punjab on the promises made to them by Amarinder Singh by holding Gutka Sahib (religious book) in hand has completely isolated the Congress from the people," he said.
The Congress now is using its old card of dividing Punjabis and conspiring to push the brave Sikh community into a fratricidal civil war, he said
Badal said the SAD is determined not only to expose the nexus and its conspiracies but also to save Punjab and the Sikhs from these evil designs.
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