Chandigarh, July 18 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday asked the Congress to disclose the name of all their leaders who had shielded perpetrators who had indulged in 2015 sacrileges of Guru Granth Sahib after the comprehensive admission by senior leaders the party had indulged in politics on this issue for political gains.
Making this assertion in a statement here, Badal said the admission by senior leader Pargat Singh in the Vidhan Sabha and former Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in a recent interview, it was incumbent for both leaders as well as the Congress to come clean and tell why they had indulged in politics on the issue of sacrilege.
Asserting that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government were on the same page on this issue, Badal said, “Randhawa has asserted in his interview that no one is ready to take the sacrilege cases to their logical conclusion.”
Speaking about the roles of various Special Investigation Teams (SITs) formed to probe the sacrilege cases, Badal said, “Randhawa has clearly stated that they had been formed to befool the people.”
He said the Congress leader had also stated that he would have asked for an explanation from former Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh instead of accepting his resignation if he had been Home minister.
“This is a clear indication of Kunwar Vijay and makes it clear that sections in the previous Congress government were convinced that the police officer was also indulging in politics on the issue of sacrilege in league with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which he joined immediately after his resignation from the police force.”
The Akali Dal leader said when the admission of the Congress leaders was seen with the advent of AAP in the state and subsequent sacrileges during the course of which an AAP legislator was convicted for committing sacrilege of the holy Koran Sharif, the role of the party in all sacrilege incidents needed to be probed.
“Only an independent probe into these cases can uncover the role of AAP in these incidents,” he added.
Asserting that the senior AAP leadership was also responsible for patronising the perpetrators of sacrilege, Badal said AAP Cabinet ministers Harpal Cheema and Harjot Bains had defended Naresh Yadav, the AAP legislator who was convicted for committing sacrilege of the Koran Sharif in 2016.
“Both ministers should not only be dismissed from the Cabinet for supporting a sacrilege accused but criminal action should also be initiated against them as per the new Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025, which the government proposes to convert into a law.”
He said similar action should be taken against AAP leader Sandeep Pathak for recommending that the party ticket from Mehrauli in Delhi be given to Yadav post-conviction and against AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal for approving it.
–IANS
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