Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh today accused chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of "trying to polarise people" along communal lines for "political gains", and said his party will not let this happen as the state cannot afford "another dark era".
Mr Singh alleged that the chief minister was responsible for the "spate of violent incidents" in the state, including an attack on RSS' Punjab vice president Jagdish Gagneja last week. Mr Gagneja was seriously injured when he was shot at by bike-borne assailants in Jalandhar.
"The deputy chief minister cannot blame everything on the ISI," Amarinder said while speaking to media persons. "We all know what the ISI is up to. But what are you doing to stop its nefarious designs? Mere chest beating and blaming them won't solve any problem. You need to act," he added.
Alleging that the chief minister was deliberately vitiating the atmosphere in Punjab before elections Mr Singh said, "Incidents of desecration in Bargari, Ludhiana and Malerkotla were all orchestrated by the chief minister, but the Congress won't allow him to succeed."
On AAP leader H S Phoolka's threat of filing defamation suit against him, Mr Singh said, "He is welcome to do that."