JOIN USStrained ties between the SAD-BJP in Punjab reached another low on Monday after the Shiromani Akali Dal officially lodged protest with the state president of Bharatiya Janata Party Kamal Sharma against former MP Navjot Singh Sidhu for his utterances against the coalition.
Party secretary, spokesman and Punjab Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema on Monday rang up Kamal Sharma on evening to apprise him about the derogatory remarks made by Navjot Singh Sidhu during a religious function at Ludhiana on Sunday. Dr Cheema said that the actions of Sidhu were ‘intolerable and against the spirit of coalition dharma’.
The SAD expressed surprise that even when the BJP high command in Delhi as well as in the state have clarified that there was no such issue between SAD and BJP, Sidhu still resorts to such uncalled for utterances against the SAD leadership.
Sidhu’s utterances were a violation of the advice of senior BJP national leadership which has publicly endorsed the continuation of alliance in Punjab. Dr Cheema urged Sharma to raise the matter with the party high command to ‘tame Sidhu.’
He demanded strict disciplinary action against Sidhu. The minister said that such utterances were creating bitterness in the SAD-BJP alliance and he hoped that the BJP leadership will take the matter seriously.
Sidhu had openly called upon the people to throw out the ‘corrupt and evil’ forces from Punjab in the next assembly elections. Though he did not name any leader or party, the obvious reference was to the Akali Dal leaders, adds IANS.