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.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday suggested the young patients should be prioritised in the distribution of Liposomal Amphotericin B drug, used for treating black fungus, "as they hold promise of future over the older ones who have lived their lives".
