Former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and a senior Akali Dal leader, Sukhbir Badal, has taken a dig at the ‘leaderless’ Muslim community by comparing the Operation Bluestar of 1984 and the demolition of Babri Masjid by Hindutva fanatics in 1992.
Badal said that while Muslims never forgave the BJP for the demolition of their place of worship on 6 December 1992, Sikhs were still voting the Congress to power despite its military operations inside the Golden Temple in 1984.
“See, the Congress party attacked Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) with tanks and our people still vote for them. On the other hand, you see the case of Babri Masjid… it is said that the BJP did it. I don’t want to say it… but has any Muslim ever voted for the party?” NDTV quoted Sukhbir Badal, now an MP, as saying.
Badal, whose wife is a minister in the Centre’s Narendra Modi government, was addressing a group of Sikh religious organisations after praying at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Badal also took a dig at the Muslim community for their inability to unite and protest the rampant lynchings of those belonging to their faith. He said that this was because Muslims in India had no leaders.
“I don’t want to take the names of other communities which don’t have leaders and are in a shambles. I am just quoting a very minor incident where a Sikh driver was assaulted and the accused had to lose his job only because we are united. Followers of many religions are being assaulted every day and nobody even cares about them,” Badal, according to NDTV, added.
Badal’s party had lost the 2017 assembly elections to a resurgent Congress under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh.
