CHANDIGARH, June 16: Senior Congress leaders and legislators today lashed out at Sukhpal Singh Khaira, the Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha for his open and blatant support to the ‘Referendum 2020’ that aims at seceding Punjab from India and dividing the country along religious lines once again.
The Congress legislators also sought clarification from the Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, asking him whether he also subscribed to the same stand as that of the leader of opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
“You must sack Khaira from the party and if you do not do that it will amount to your consent and concurrence to the anti-national designs of Khaira”, they told Kejriwal, while demanding immediate action against Khaira.
In a joint statement the party MLAs including Ramanjit Singh Sikki, Harminder Singh Gill and Hardev Singh Ladi ridiculed Khaira for saying that while he supported the ‘referendum 2020’, he stood for a united India. “It is a classic case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds”, the MLAs remarked while asserting that Khaira has only reaffirmed and reiterated the hidden agenda of the AAP of supporting secessionist and anti-national forces.
The MLAs reminded Khaira of the dark days, which devastated Punjab. “Those wounds are yet to heal and you are trying to stab the state and its people once again exactly the way your father late Sukhjinder Singh did three decades back”, they told Khaira while referring to his father’s support for Khalistan in 1980s.
The Congress leaders said, people of Punjab had not once but on multiple occasions reposed their faith and trust in the unity and integrity of the country. “Punjabis in general and the Sikhs in particular have given their blood to the building of a strong nation and those seeking and supporting referendum to secede can only be their worst enemies and not well wishers”, they warned.
The MLAs said, those preaching secession through ‘referendum 2020’ were sitting thousands of miles away from Punjab in the cool and comfortable confines of their homes in the west, while trying to set Punjab on fire and push the innocent Punjabi youth towards the precipice of disaster by using the stooges like Khaira. “We have suffered once and we won’t let our youth suffer and succumb to your deadly designs once again”, they challenged Khaira and those seeking the referendum.