The politico-religious slugfest over Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations is far from over.

A day after the Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal slammed Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for “challenging the supremacy of Akal Takht by deciding to hold a parallel event at Sultanpur Lodhi”, the senior Congress leader on Sunday reminded the SAD MP that it was the Akalis who had “humiliated” the Akal Takht Jathedar.

Capt Amarinder, in a stinging response to Harsimrat’s latest tirade against Punjab Government, reminded her that it was her own Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) regime that had “shamelessly and willfully heaped humiliation” on the Akal Takht Jathedar in sharp contrast to his government, which had always treated the Sikh temporal seat with exemplary respect.

“For 10 years, the Akalis, including Harsimrat, had been totally drunk on power, sparing neither the Akal Takht nor the people of Punjab from their tyrannical control,” said the Chief Minister, asking the Union Minister to stop indulging in such blatant falsehoods for her petty political gains.

“Everyone knows how you (Akalis) maliciously ill-treated Akal Takht Jathedars, out of sheer arrogance, and continue to abuse the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) by dictating terms on them,” said Capt Amarinder while reacting to Harsimrat’s allegations on his government over the issue of joint celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary.

“She has no scruples, none of the Akalis have,” said the Chief Minister, pointing out that while Harsimrat was singing praises for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, her husband, Sukhbir Badal, was going around appealing for forfeiture of the BJP candidates’ deposits in the campaign for the Haryana elections.

He said: “Their obnoxious double standards had long been exposed to the people of Punjab, who have outright rejected the Akali leadership time and again, since their absolute rout in the 2017 Assembly polls in the state.”

Pointing out that he had, for months, been personally engaging with the SGPC and appealing for a joint celebration for the 550th prakash purb, as befitting of the occasion, Capt Amarinder said that it was the SAD which had been persistently scuttling his efforts in their game of upmanship.

“While the Akalis had always exploited religion for political gains, I had expected them to show some decency in the case of the historic 550th prakash purb celebrations,” said the Chief Minister, adding that “the Akalis evidently had no shame when it came to the promotion of their personal interests.”

“The manner in which they had been going, on the side, to invite the Prime Minister and other central government leaders for the separate event of the SGPC clearly exposed their revoltingly true intent,” he said.