Chandigarh, Sep 22 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has asked senior farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal to keep the farmers' agitation above politics. It requested him to take concrete action against hooligans who had targeted Akali workers proceeding to Delhi to participate in the party's march to Parliament.
Senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema on Tuesday said it was most unfortunate that even after admitting that some wrong elements wanted to defame the 'kisan sangharsh', Rajewal had neither secured an unconditional apology from those guilty of hooliganism nor subjected them to the process of law.
Chandumajra and Grewal also took objection to Rajewal's statement that only SAD legislators and MPs should have gone to protest in Delhi.
"We fail to understand what objection he has to a protest by thousands of people. Earlier also thousands of farmers marched to Parliament which sent out a message of unity and strength attracting worldwide attention," they said.
Asserting that they held Rajewal in high esteem, the SAD leaders said, "Rajewal, however, should not lower his dignity by making political statements. We are ready to debate political issues separately and the kisan forum should not be used for the same."
Cheema rebutted the assertion of Rajewal that SAD was defaming the 'kisan andolan' by releasing videos. "In fact, the videos showing Akali leaders and even women being abused, intimidated and even robbed besides the damage done to their vehicles have been posted by the perpetrators and not the victims."
He said it was unfortunate that Rajewal had chosen to politicize the issue and also paint SAD, which had resigned from the Union ministry and even quit the NDA, in poor light.
"Pharmaceutical industry in Goa produces 12 per cent of the total medicine manufactured in India. Around 70 per cent of the product is exported to the most developed countries in the world," Sawant told a government function in Panaji organised to promote industrial trade in the state.
Even the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has directed all state governments and Union Territory administrations to use the word Scheduled Caste instead of Dalit for persons belonging to SCs.
The non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine has impacted the Indians, especially students travelling to the UK. This issue was flagged during the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday in Washington DC.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Channi took oath of office along with his two deputies -- one a Jat Sikh and another belonging to the Hindu community -- at a simple ceremony here in the Punjab capital that was delayed for 20 minutes owing to the late arrival of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
