He urged the SAD minister in the Union Cabinet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal to immediately resign in support of their stand on the contentious Act.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. (Photo: SNS)
A day after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced its decision of not contesting the Delhi Assembly election, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday challenged the Akalis to quit its alliance with the party at centre to prove their sincerity with regard to the legislation.
“Why don’t you walk the talk and show the people of India that you really stand against the divisive and destructive CAA?” Amarinder Singh said.
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He urged the SAD minister in the Union Cabinet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal to immediately resign in support of their stand on the contentious Act.
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“If you found the CAA to be anti-Muslim, why did you support and pass the legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha?” he asked the Akalis.
Singh said the vociferous support extended by the SAD to the legislation in Parliament was a matter of record.
Amarinder Singh also said Delhi was the second state after Haryana where the SAD decided not to go with their ally, BJP. He termed the decision of withdrawal of SAD from the Delhi polls on account of differences with BJP on the CAA was ‘unacceptable’.
“The decision to opt-out of the Delhi elections was clearly motivated by political compulsions as the SAD had evidently realised it had no ground support and could not win even a single seat in the national capital,” he said.
“Or perhaps, the BJP was not ready to give them what they needed in terms of seats, prompting them to look for a graceful way out of the situation,” he added.
Attacking party chief Sukhbir Badal and Union minister Harsimrat Badal, over their spate of contradictory statements on CAA, Singh said the Akalis did not have a principled stand on the major national issue.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s claim that the party had been under pressure to review its stand on the CAA was ludicrous, to say the least, considering the discordant notes the Akalis had been striking on the issue for the past several days, he added.
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