Rahul insulting Punjabis with drug rant: SAD

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13

The Akali Dal said today that it was a matter of shame for Rahul Gandhi to first dub 70 per cent of Punjabis as drug addicts and now add insult to injury by insisting that they accept this false claim as true.

Stating that Rahul was becoming party to maligning Punjabis as drug addicts just as his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, had tagged them as terrorists, the SAD asked him to explain why he had insisted during his speech in Jalandhar today that Punjabis should accept that they were drug addicts.

In a statement here, SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said, “I can understand that your father, Rajiv Gandhi encouraged the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide with his utterances and even protected the perpetrators. But you should not have followed in his footsteps by appointing a riot ‘accused’, Kamal Nath, as the party incharge of Punjab affairs. It is clear that you have no love lost for Punjabis or their sentiments, so please stop shedding crocodile tears over drugs in the state.”

The SADleader claimed that the drug trade had flourished during the Congress rule in Punjab.

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Cong rally sidelights

• On reaching the dharna site, Rahul Gandhi surprised party leaders by sitting on the ground among them in an enclosure rather than occupying a chair in the VIP gallery. PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh and other leaders sitting in the gallery followed him to the enclosure in front of the media gallery. Soon, the selfie sessions began.
• Alleging that his men were denied entry into the VIP circle, Bajwa said he would take up the matter with the party high-ups
• Chief spokesperson Sunil Jakhar, party leaders Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Tejinder Bittu and Ashwin Bhalla received Rahul at Adampur airforce base, greeting him with a corn cob (chhalli)
• Rahul especially called Manpreet Badal from the outer enclosure to the VIP gallery