With Prime Minister Narendra Modi forced to cancel his public address and return to Delhi because of a farmers’ road blockade, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said the security lapse during the PM’s visit is a reflection of “total collapse of law and order machinery in Punjab”.

The SAD president said Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was solely to blame for this total collapse of the law and order machinery which led to the major security lapse which occurred enroute Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hussainiwala.

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“This incident makes it clear that there is no government whatsoever in the state. The infighting in the Punjab Congress has made the chief minister totally ineffective and the situation has become such that there is no clear command over the law and order machinery. This was witnessed today also with the chief minister and state home minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa speaking in two different voices over the same incident,” he said.

Badal said the situation was of the Punjab Congress party’s own making. “In its desperate bid to register false vendetta driven cases against the top SAD leadership the Congress party has wreaked the police force as well as its chain of command,” he said.

The SAD leader said the state has witnessed change of two Director Generals of Police (DGPs) in quick succession besides repeated changes at the top level. “The present incumbent S Chattopadhyay was appointed as the state DGP despite being ineligible for the same. This politicization of the once professional police force under the Congress party is responsible for the current state of affairs,” he added.

Stating that it was now clear that the CM was incompetent and incapable of running the state, Badal said Channi did not have any moral right to continue in office. He said it was common knowledge that the rule of the jungle prevailed in the state with no one being safe.

“Repeated actions have proved this. However it was at least expected that the Congress government would provide smooth and safe conduct to the Prime Minister during his visit to the state. Its failure to do so has made it clear that it is incapable of ensuring the safety of the common man as well as the peace in the state,” Badal said.