Violence not in SAD ideology, Harsimrat replies to EC notice

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 18

In her reply to the ECI over the complaint of allegedly inciting violence, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had maintained that adopting violence is not in the ideology of SAD.

Mansa District Election Officer Varinder Sharma claimed that Harsimrat has said that she didn’t incite violence. Rather, she had claimed that her party wanted peace that had been “attained by them after hard work of many years”.

She was served a notice by the Returning Officer, Budhlada, on January 14 after an online complaint was lodged against her.

Harsimrat, during her visit to Boha town of Budhlada constituency on January 11, claimed that if Sukhbir Badal or Prakash Singh Badal tell their supporters to adopt violence, then AAP workers would not be able to live, leave aside coming out of their homes.

She had given this statement to mediapersons in response to their queries.

It was an indirect reply to Bhagwant Mann who, during his speech at Chowke of Maur constituency in Bathinda few days back, had allegedly said that there would be black marketing of stones as people would pelt stones on Akali leaders coming to seek votes in the villages.

On this, SAD leaders had complained that Bhagwant Mann was inciting violence.

Varinder Sharma, District Election Officer, Mansa, said, “We have forwarded Harsimrat’s reply to the Election Commission in which she has said that she is a law-abiding citizen and her party wants peace. They will follow all the instructions of the ECI. She claimed that her intent was not to resort to violence as it is not the ideology of her party.”

‘Defeat AAP to save Punjab’ 

Ferozepur: Union Minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal today appealed to the voters to defeat the “nefarious designs” of AAP, which, she alleged, was trying to create chaos and anarchy in the state. Addressing a rally in favour of SAD candidate Hari Singh Zira here, Harsimrat said it was not just a coincidence that the incidents of sacrilege started and increased with the emergence of AAP after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and there was sudden thaw in such acts following the arrest of AAP Delhi legislator. She said AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had been changing his stance on Punjab’s riverwaters while moving from Punjab to Delhi via Haryana and in each state he took a different position depending on his interest. Taking on the Congress, she alleged that the previous Congress regime had brought the state to the brink of financial disaster and to bail out the state from dire fiscal straits, Amarinder’s government had stopped free power and welfare schemes for the underprivileged. oc