SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal hits out at Navjot Sidhu over his recent remarks on the sacrilege row(Video screengrab – @officeofssbadal/Twitter) 
Chandigarh: Days after Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s call to “publicly hang” those found guilty of sacrilege, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal contended that the former had “no right” so say anything on the issue. With mere months left for the Punjab Assembly elections, the two leaders have repeatedly been at loggerheads over a slew of issues.
“PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, do you have guts to demand punishment for Gandhis responsible for attacking thousands of our holy Gurughars in 1984? Do you have guts to demand punishment for Tytler and Sajjan Kumar? If no, then you have no right to utter even a word on sacrilege issue,” Badal tweeted, sharing a video.
Two individuals had been killed recently in separate incidents after alleged attempts to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and a gurdwara in Kapurthala. The first incident took place on Saturday afternoon, with an unidentified youth jumping over the rails in the Golden Temple sanctum sanctorum and picking up the ceremonial sword, purportedly to attempt sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. In the second incident, a man was allegedly beaten to death by locals for disrespecting the ‘Nishan Sahib’ at the village Gurudwara. The police however have since said that there were no visible signs of sacrilege in this case.
Following the incidents, Sidhu had batted for “deterrent punishment”, insisting that such acts were, in reality, a “conspiracy” to weaken and finish the society. “Wherever sacrilege takes place, be it of Quran Sharif or Bhagavad Gita or Guru Granth Sahib, they (the guilty) should be hanged in public and given biggest constitutional punishment,” he had said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the two politicians have also found themselves clashing over the allegations against SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia. While Badal insists that the FIR against his colleague and brother-in-law is based on a “brazenly false case”, Sidhu has repeatedly called for the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government to take action against Majithia. With the controversy coming against the backdrop of the impending elections, the SAD has accused the Punjab government of indulging in vendetta politics.