Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday slammed the Congress on the recent visits of party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to Punjab and accused it of being "devoid" on agenda.
SAD spokesman and party Secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said the ruling party`s "analysis" of the visits "has revealed that the party (Congress) is devoid of any national as well as regional agenda."
"The behaviour of the state Congress leadership equally reflects their insensitivity and carelessness towards the burning problems of Punjab," he alleged.
"It is a sad affair that Punjab was nowhere in the discussions in any of these (Rahul`s) meetings and only selfish political interests were raised by all the Congressmen present in the meetings," he claimed.
Everyone expected that Rahul Gandhi will unfold his visionary strategy for the next parliamentary elections, but nothing of the sort happened, he said in a statement.
"At this time when state farmers have been denied their legitimate right of drought relief by the Union government everybody thought that the state Congress leadership would request their worthy General Secretary to help the peasantry get their due, but nothing of the sort happened," he accused.
The issue of excise concessions to Punjab, which has allegedly adversely affected the state`s industry, was not raised in any of these meetings, he also said.
However, in a separate statement here, Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh hailed the two visits of Rahul Gandhi to Punjab this month, saying it had further enthused and energised the party rank and file in the state.
"The workers and the grassroots level leaders were feeling happy about having met their leader (Rahul) and exchanged views and ideas with him. Rahul Gandhi by his three day interaction with workers and leaders had further energised them to work harder for the party," Singh said.
PTI
