The Akali Dal-BJP government in Punjab celebrated the 50th foundation day of the state in Amritsar with BJP President Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal attending the function.
Badal, on the occasion, raised the issue of river waters, and rued that people were making caustic comments that in spite of a BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, territorial issues with neighbouring Haryana had not been settled.
Arun Jaitely, however, heaped lavish praises on Badal, Punjab and Punjabis, and claimed what he called “unparalleled development” in substantial measure. He said there were a few instances when alliance partners were in power both in state and Centre and that such relationships had witnessed unparallelled development due to synergy between both the governments.
BJP President Amit Shah said that the credit of firm and everlasting alliance between the SAD and the BJP was due to vision of the chief minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and announced that the BJP would celebrate the 350th birth anniversary of tenth Master of Sikhs in every mandal and tehsil across the length and breadth of country to disseminate the ideology of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal announced that the state government would soon set up a network of 2500 shops to provide free medicines to people, and that massive steps had been taken to perpetuate the glorious heritage of state by constructing several memorials.
And with that, the huge gathering at Amritsar, meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Punjab—as a fallout of the Reorganisation of States Act—turned to the formal mega launch of the SAD-BJP partners' election campaign. Jaitely and Shah had gone specially to participate in the event.
Amritsar happens to be part of the Lok Sabha constituency that dealt Jaitely a crushing defeat in May 2014. The constant bickering and squabbles between the two alliance partners had more or less made Shah keep his visits to the border state to the bare minimum.
The state unit of the Congress wanted to know what there was to celebrate about, for the truncated Punabi Suba had still not got its dues. Describing the formation of Punjab as the "second partition of Punjab that left the state poorer, " the Congress Legislature Party leader Charanjit Singh Channi said,
"November 1 is a cause for celebration for Haryana and Himachal Pradesh but not for Punjab as it was this state that suffered. Punjab is now among the laggard states while Haryana and Himachal have marched much ahead."
Polls are due in Punjab in February 2017.
There were references to injustices meted out to Punjab, while the communal feelings were kept out of the discourse, with mention of Punjabis and no specific talk of Sikh feelings.
