Chandigarh, Dec 02: A day after former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was sent to jail in a disproportionate assets case, his Shiromani Akali Dal today decided to raise the issue in Parliament and take up with President A P J Abdul Kalam "the repression of Akali workers by the Congress government" in the state. Reposing "full faith" in the leadership of Badal, a joint meeting of the SAD political affairs committee and senior leaders here assigned the party's representative in the Union government, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, to raise the issue in the winter session of Parliament which began today, SGPC chief G S Tohra, who chaired the meeting, told reporters.
"Dhindsa and BJP leader Balramji Dass Tandon have been assigned to seek an appointment with the President to apprise him on repression of sad workers by the Congress government. "Dhindsa will raise the issue in Parliament also," he said.
The party would submit to Kalam a memorandum on the atrocities on Akalis, especially the Badals, Tohra said.
The SAD would hold consultations on the issue with its allies in ruling NDA at the Centre as well as with "those parties which believe in democracy," he said.
Tohra said the party would hold an 'anti-repression rally' at Patiala on December 08, the day Badal turns 79.
He said a delegation of 101 party workers would stage a dharna in front of the Patiala Jail on December nine.
A Ropar court had yesterday sent Badal and his MP son Sukhbir to the Patiala jail after turning down their bail pleas in a disproportionate assets case. The court remanded them to judicial custody till December 13.
Bureau Report