Bathinda: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Monday challenged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal to an open debate on the 10-plus paper leaks and recruitment scams in Punjab, while asking him to explain why not a single head had rolled despite repeated examination leaks that have impacted over 10 lakh students.
Badal was addressing a sit-in protest at the Government Rajindra College here as part of the ‘Bhavikh Bachao Morcha’ being led by the Akali Dal’s student wing, Students’ Organisation of India (SOI), that is demanding the resignation of ministers Harjot Bains and Balbir Singh and a CBI probe into the paper leaks.
Slamming Kejriwal for shedding crocodile tears for the students of Delhi and even sitting on ‘dharna’ there, Badal asked him why he was ignoring the students of Punjab. “Are they not your children? Why are you betraying Punjabi students like this?” he asked, adding, “Who will fight for their rights?”
Throwing an open challenge to Kejriwal to hold an open debate with him in the university of his choosing in Punjab, Badal said, “I will expose you thoroughly. I will lay bare before the people of Punjab as to how you leaked the papers. How outsiders were given jobs with facts and figures and how Punjabi youth were ignored.”
Amidst slogans of ‘Harjot Bains istefa de’ from agitating students, Badal also condemned the AAP government for denying the paper leak incidents even though the Chief Minister also admitted to the same in a tweet earlier and the Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed a number of recruitments due to large-scale irregularities.
“If there was no paper leak, thousands of students would not be sitting on a ‘dharna’ here,” he said while announcing that the agitation would continue till the “guilty” ministers did not resign.
Urging the students to take a pledge to kick the “Dilliwalas” out of Punjab once and for all, Badal said, “SAD is committed to taking exemplary action against all those who have destroyed the future of our children. The Shiromani Akali Dal is Punjab’s own party; we promise to protect you because you are our family and this is our home. We are not outsiders. And that’s the biggest difference.”
(IANS)
