Justice is not the intention of CM Channi in the matter of sacrilege - Harpal Singh Cheema

Aam Aadmi Party termed, the recent incident of sacrilege in the holy Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar and the violent repercussions that followed in the state, as a big political conspiracy. Addressing the media at the party headquarters on Wednesday, senior AAP leader and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema said, "Traditional parties are carrying out incidents of religious sacrilege since 2015 to spoil Punjab’s brotherhood."

Questioning the Congress government's claim of taking action against those who are guilty of sacrilege in Sri Harmandir Sahib, Cheema said, Channi government had claimed to catch all the culprits and conspirators in two days. But, it's been more than four days and they are far from catching the conspirators when the Congress government has not even been able to identify the culprit who carried out this incident. He said that the Congress government was delaying the investigation to complicate the matter and to use it to their electoral benefit like the last time.

Questioning the intentions of the ruling Congress government, Cheema said, "Congress came to power in 2017 by promising to insure justice in 2015 sacrilege issue and Kotkapura, Behbal Kalan shooting cases. No action has been taken against the culprits." He further asked if the intention of the Congress was really to get justice, then why the Congress government has not taken any action till date on the report of Justice Ranjit Singh of 2018. Even after repeated formation of new SITs by the Congress government, till now neither the culprits were punished nor did the people get justice.

Cheema said, “At the time of elections, such incidents are carried out under political conspiracy. The government itself and their agencies are behind this. Since 2015 till now, not only there was desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, but the holy book of Hinduism, Shrimad Bhagwat Gita and the holy book of Islam, Quran Sahib were targeted too. The present and previous governments did not take any action. This proves that the ruling party does not deliberately catch the culprits and conspirators for their political gains.”

Taking a jibe at the Akali Dal (Badal), Cheema said, "In 2015, when the sacrilege incident took place, the Akali-BJP alliance was in government in the state for one and a half years after that. But for a year and a half, the Badal government deliberately did not take any action against the culprits.” Cheema appealed to the people of Punjab to beware of the conspiracies of traditional parties and said that through incidents of sacrilege, traditional parties are trying to spoil the peace and mutual brotherhood of Punjab. The anti-Punjab forces want to create an atmosphere of panic in the state so that people are stuck in caste and religious issues leaving the real issues like education, medical and employment behind.