Those involved in sacrilege do not deserve mercy: Rahul

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Those involved in sacrilege do not deserve mercy: Rahul

Thursday, 16 May 2019 | PNS | Chandigarh

In a last-minute push to keep the sacrilege issue alive before the Punjab votes on Sunday, the Congress national president Rahul Gandhi and Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday launched their most scathing attack on the SAD-BJP combine at Faridkot’s Bargari village — the epicentre of the 2015 sacrilege and related firing incidents.

As Rahul made it clear that the perpetrators of these “crimes” and subsequent incidents of police firing would not be spared, Capt Amarinder announced a memorial in or around “Bargari sahib” — as most of the Congress leaders referred to it during today’s rally. 

Capt Amarinder announced that the memorial would be set up for those who lost their lives or were injured in the “unprovoked police firing on peaceful protestors” in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura during the term of SAD-BJP government in 2015. 

Strategically choosing Bargari as venue for party’s mega rally in the run up to May 19 elections, all the Congress leaders blamed the SAD, especially the Badals, for the series of sacrilege incidents and the subsequent firing incident which claimed two lives, which shook the state in 2015. 

Rahul, addressing the rally, made sure to take on the SAD-BJP combine over the sacrilege issue, which he gave a miss during his previous rallies in the state.

He warned of a strong action against the culprits behind the Bargari and other cases of desecration of the holy scriptures declaring that the perpetrators of these crimes and the subsequent incidents of police firing would not be spared. 

“Those who insulted religious scriptures do not deserve any mercy,” said Rahul while recalling his earlier visit to the region, which was rocked by a spate of sacrilege incidents and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing incidents. 

Capt Amarinder, in his address, announced to set up a memorial in or around Bargari “for those who lost their lives or were injured in the unprovoked police firing on peaceful protestors in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura”. 

For setting up the memorial, a committee of local residents will soon be constituted to decide what kind of memorial they wanted to be constructed, and “our government will have it built in remembrance of those who became innocent victims of the Akali crimes”. 

Ridiculing the then Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal’s claim of Bargari and other sacrilege cases being bygones, Capt Amarinder said: “The people never have, and never will forget the desecration of their holy scriptures, and the Akali supremo should be ashamed of even suggesting the same.” 

“The Sikhs have not forgotten, in 500 years, the sacrifice of any member of their community...It is shameful that Badal, at the age of 93, has not yet realised this stark truth...How can anyone forget what happened during the rule of the Badals? Not one or two, but 58 Sri Guru Grant Sahibs were desecrated, not to count the Gutka Sahibs, Bhagwad Geeta, the Bible and the Quran which were burnt or torn,” he lashed out. 

“What happened in those months, including at Bargari, and the incidents of police firing on those protesting peaceful against sacrilege, right under the nose of Badal is not something that Punjab can ever forget,” said Capt Amarinder, adding that the firing could not have taken place without Badal’s knowledge and he was clearly to blame. 

The Chief Minister recalled how he had been told by the affected people that the SP came suddenly and ordered firing, with the cops gunning down people who were fleeing. “This is not the way such incidents are handled...If firing is at all needed, it is done by a small police unit, accompanied by a magistrate who assesses the situation and finds apprehension of trouble and asks for a single shot to be fired at one individual,” he said. 

Capt Amarinder added that the Badal, and the rest of the Akalis, know what had happened was wrong and that the people had neither forgotten nor forgiven them for the same, and “this is the reason why they are now running around desperately for votes”. 

Notably, the Congress has all along been targeting the previous SAD-led regime over the issue of sacrilege, even ahead the 2017 assembly elections that led to Akalis’ resounding defeat, cashing in on the public anger against them. Even as the people’s outrage against the Akalis have subsided, at least to some extent, the Congress is making all out efforts to keep it alive till May 19 elections. 

The party leaders are, time and again, evoking the sacrilege issue, while asking the electorates to “punish” the Badals by voting against them. In fact, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, in his first election rally in the state on Tuesday, vowed to punish the guilty of “desecration of my Guru”. 

Even during Bargari rally, Congress leaders politicised the sacrilege issue to the hilt by repeatedly referring to the place as “Bargari Sahib”. Congress leaders, including the state Power Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Faridkot MLA Kushaldeep Singh ‘Kiki’ Dhillon, referred to Akalis, especially the BAdals, as “paapi” (sinners) for their failure to probe the incident and punish the guilty.

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