The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab on Thursday demanded the resignation of Union minister and member of Parliament from the state, Harsimrat Kaur Badal over the purported attempt to change the name of Dyal Singh College(evening) of Delhi University to Vande Mataram College.

In a Press statement, AAP Punjab co-president Balbir Singh and legislator from Suman, Aman Arora demanded the resignation of Badal on moral grounds for failing to protect the legacy of Punjabis.

The AAP leaders said that even after so much opposition from the different section of society on renaming the collage, the Centre has decided to go ahead with it. “Harsimrat Badal being in the Cabinet of Narendra Modi government was aware of every move and the management but is now pretending as if she knew nothing,” they said in the joint statement.

Balbir said that demand of Badal to take action against college chairman Amitabh Sinha and the vice chancellor of Delhi University is farce as she herself is the part of the government and move can’t release of the sin. He said that Badal must ask Prime Minister Modi to look in the matter or resign from his cabinet on this issue. Arora said that the statement of Union minister Parkash Javedkar will not carry any weight if he does not take any action against Dayal Singh College council chairman Amitabh Sinha and DU vice-chancellor (VC) Yogesh Tyagi.

He said that it is impossible to digest that despite the government assurance in Parliament, the chairman Sinha and VC Tyagi managed to put a renamed banner outside the college. He said that both are working on the dictates of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which was indulging in the politics of religion and cast to divide Hindu and Sikhs of the country.

The AAP leaders said that along with Punjab leadership, the Central leadership of AAP is taking up the issue very seriously. The AAP legislators of Delhi have registered their opposition on the matter with Human Development ministry and demanded sacking of Sinha and Tyagi for renaming the college without any delay.

On her part, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Union food processing industry minister Badal had on Wednesday requested PM Modi to sack Sinha for going against undertaking of Union human resource development (HRD) ministry that the name of Dayal Singh College will not be changed.

She alleged the college management deliberately inflamed the sentiments of the Sikh community by putting up banners changing its name to Vande Matram Dayal Singh College at its annual prize distribution function on April 25.