Dhindsa roots for BJP, says state will gain most if it wins

Tribune News Service

Sangrur/New Delhi, May 7

After his resignation from all party posts last year due to differences with SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, rebel party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa today, for the first time, sought votes for the BJP and its alliance partners.

He said if the NDA again formed the government at the Centre, the Punjab and Punjabis would gain the most.

He said since the BJP had taken numerous steps for the welfare of Sikhs, both the BJP and its alliance partners deserved votes. “The BJP has ended blacklist of Sikhs, is opening Kartarpur corridor and has been taking all required steps to punish the perpetrator of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. It deserves votes and I appeal to all country residents to vote for the BJP and its alliance partners,” said Dhindsa, while talking to The Tribune over the phone.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi today, Dhindsa, former MP Tarlochan Singh and DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the Narendra Modi government had given much-needed relief to the Sikhs by constituting an SIT for probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots due to which main culprit Sajjan Kumar and others, including Naresh Sehrawat, were now behind bars.

They said the SIT had reopened a case of senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, who was given a clean chit earlier. Now he was also facing cases. They said for the last 33 years, the Sikhs had been awaiting justice in the worst-ever riots case and the NDA government, led by Narinder Modi, had done the job.

The Sikh leaders said the decision to open the Kartarpur Sahib corridor had won the hearts of the Sikh community as for the last 70 years they were having “darshan” of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib with binoculars only and now the “sangat” would be able to have proper “darshan” after the completion of the corridor. They said apart from this, the decision of celebrating the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak throughout the world had been lauded by Sikhs.

The NDA government celebrated the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh and Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. The SAD leaders said waiving the GST on “langar” was also a historic decision taken by the NDA government. They said abolishing blacklist was a very big decision for which Sikhs had been struggling for a long time. They said with the implementation of the decision, Sikhs settled abroad on asylum basis could now visit their homes.