AAP can only entertain, not rule: Badal

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Churian, July 5

With the AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal taking on the SAD-BJP combine, CM Parkash Singh Badal today sought to politically neutralise him by saying that the party had too many entertainers in its ranks rather than politicians.

The CM was apparently referring to Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann and comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi who are the leading speakers at the AAP rallies. Yesterday, too, at Gurdaspur both had endeared themselves to the crowd by narrating witty anecdotes.

Political observers claim that the SAD think-tank was seized of this development and to checkmate their increasing popularity, the CM had decided to take the latter head-on.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Sangat Darshan programme held here today, the CM sarcastically quipped, “Kejriwal was leading a band of fugitives and entertainers and that his party had no political agenda except to snatch power by hook or by crook.”

Fatehgarh Churian is the seat of former Assembly speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and from where his son Ravi Karan Kahlon is virtually sure of getting the party nomination.

After distributing cheques for developmental works, the CM took aim at the Delhi CM and challenged him to clarify his stand on the SYL waters issue. “When he is in Punjab, he speaks the language of the Punjabis. However, once he crosses the border and reaches Delhi he starts criticising the community. By giving an affidavit in the Supreme Court his party has taken a diametrically opposite stand to that of the state government on the SYL issue.