Capt Amarinder questions Badal on 'external forces' remark

PATIALA: Referring to Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal’s statement that external forces were responsible for the current situation in Punjab, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Capt Amarinder Singh, has said on Tuesday that Punjab CM should stop searching excuses for his own failures.
He pointed out that earlier Badal tried to put every blame on the opposition, particularly the Congress party and now realising that nobody was going to buy it, he has shifted the blame on external forces.
“I wonder how Badal has certainly woken up to the revelation that external forces were responsible for the current situation”, he remarked, while adding, “external forces will always be ever ready to exploit and cash in on your failures”.
Amarinder said that it was the mishandling of the situation by Badal that has led to the current crisis. He questioned that what was the need to fire upon peaceful protesters.
“People were protesting peacefully. But trigger happy state police personnel shot at them indiscriminately that has infuriated whole of Punjab against Badal. Where is the external hand in indiscriminate firing on peaceful protesters by your police?” he asked.
The former Chief Minister said, while the facts about the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib are yet to be ascertained, but what is certain is that Badal and his government failed to take action at the right moment.
“First it was paralysed by inaction and later it was guilty of overreaction”, he observed, while pointing out, “first they it did not take any action when holy Guru Granth Sahib went missing and now they resorted to unprovoked indiscriminate firing on peaceful protesters killing two and injuring 40 of them”.
He demanded inquiry by a sitting High Court or Supreme Court judge to find out the truth about the sacrilege.