Babbehali involved in land grab: Manpreet

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, June 28

People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) chief Manpreet Singh Badal turned up at a rally being held by various political parties in protest against the alleged land grabbing activities of senior SAD leader Gurbachan Singh Babbehali and told him not to indulge in “this nefarious activity for which he will have to pay heavily in the next elections.”

Manpreet Badal reached the Gopal Nagar locality in the afternoon where a protest had been on for the past several weeks. Nearly 40 people of the area have been claiming that their plots, purchased by them decades ago, were being encroached upon by some powerful people who had the tacit support of the Akali leader.

The PPP chief, who was flanked by PPCC member Raman Bahl and leaders from other political outfits, claimed that he had not been invited by anybody. 

“I have not been invited by anybody. It is a decision taken by me from the core of my heart. My heart bleeds for these poor people who have been running from pillar to post for several weeks but in vain,” he said.

Manpreet, while lambasting Babbehali, said that history would teach him a lesson. “I can quote examples of hundreds of despotic and tyrannical leaders who had to bite the dust just because they had treaded upon the rights of poor people. 

“The Akali leader should learn a lesson from history. Otherwise, like the despotic autocrats of the past, he too will be judged by history as an oppressive ruler who denied the poor people their rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, political observers have questioned Manpreet’s wisdom in naming the Akali leader when a trainee IAS officer had already cleared his name of any land grabbing after conducting an inquiry. The inquiry report has already been submitted to the Deputy Commissioner.