'Ban organizations behind violence in Orissa'

GURDASPUR: While the Christians continue with their silent protests in Gurdaspur by wearing black badges, former PWD minister and sitting Congress MLA from Kahnuwan Pratap Singh Bajwa said the President should ban the Bajrang Dal and the VHP for the recent attacks on Christians in Orissa to maintain secular fibre of the country.
Talking to mediapersons here, Bajwa, who has been spearheading the campaign for minority status to Christians during the tenure of Amarinder government said, if the government can put a ban on SIMI for their terror activities, why not do the same on these fundamental outfits, which were being used by the BJP to cause communal tension in the country. "Not only Christians were being targeted in Orissa, nearer home, in Gurdaspur a Christian family was allowed to bury their dead at the Devi Dass Pura near Dhariwal only after four days, after the local court intervened."
He conceded that the Gurdaspur DCC needed immediate revamping as the party had lost all the assembly seats except Kahnuwan, from where he won. When asked whether he would like to be party candidate for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in the coming elections, Bajwa said he would not mind contesting if the Congress high command ordered him to do so.
Taking credit for construction of a bridge at Kathlour, he stated in fact it was he and not Khanna, who got funds for the bridge sanctioned from the Nabard and completed it during Amarinder's regime.
Ruing the neglect of Majha region at the hands of SAD-BJP, he opined that instead of installing a thermal plant in Malwa, the CM should have chosen Gurdaspur or Tarn Taran to mend the regional imbalance.