Parkash Singh Badal welcomes reopening of Sikh riot case against Jagdish Tytler

KAULI (PATIALA): Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today welcomed the Delhi court's decision to re-open 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against Jagdish Tytler, setting aside a CBI closure report giving clean chit to the Congress leader.


Badal said that at last,"a ray of hope has rekindled amongst the Sikhs in general and aggrieved families of the riot victims in particular for getting justice."

Additional Sessions Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj yesterday set aside the order of a magisterial court which accepted CBI's closure report giving a clean chit to Tytler.

Talking to reporters after attending a function to mark the death anniversary of former Akali MLA Jathedar Jasdev Singh Sandhu here, the CM said, it was unfortunate that even after passing of more than 30 years justice alluded the victims of these riots.

"It is ridiculous that the national Congress leadership instead of punishing the guilty responsible for this inhuman and barbaric act was shielding them for reasons best known to it," he alleged.

He said Congress had "deliberately derailed the dispensation of justice to the victims of this holocaust and rubbed salt into their wounds by rewarding the guilty with coveted posts".

"It was the height of apathy that the Union government has always hurt the sentiments of the Punjabis in general and that of Sikhs in particular by irrelevantly meddling in their social, economic, political and even religious issues," he claimed.

On the power tariff hike in the state, Badal said the decision was taken by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

He claimed the state government had hardly any role in effecting the hike, saying the Commission was an autonomous body constituted under an Act of the Parliament.

However, he said that the hike might have been necessitated due to the high expenditure being meted out to supply the power by the POWERCOM.

Badal also pointed out that the hike in Punjab has been 9.06 per cent whereas in Haryana it was around 12 per cent.

Asked about the statement of Punjab BJP President Kamal Sharma for imposing power tariff on big farmers of Punjab, he said "we have studied this and found that about 70 per cent of farmers are small and marginal in Punjab."

On the issue of sharing of seats with its ally for the next Lok Sabha polls, Badal replied, "we will discuss it with our alliance partner BJP for any change in it, if need be, and there is no hard and fast rule in it".

He further added, "let me clear that the alliance with BJP will remain intact and stand like a rock".

Badal also said that the ratio between SAD and BJP in next parliament elections would remain same as 10:3 and added "if any need arise for reshuffling of any seat we will discuss it with our alliance partner BJP."