JALANDHAR: After Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking repeal of all the "anti-democratic and repressive" laws like NSA and UAPA, Sikh group Dal Khalsa has asked him to tender apology to all the victims of these repressive laws during Akali regime.
The organisation reminded Sukhbir that the SAD-BJP government misused all such draconian laws and measures against political dissenters and opponents from 2007 to 2017.
Holding Sukhbir accountable for registering more than 50 cases under UAPA and the archaic sedition laws against Sikh youth at different times, Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh said that more than 200 Sikh activists including the parallel Jathedars appointed at the Sarbat Khalsa at Chabba were arrested, but all were acquitted by courts as all cases were fabricated due to political vendetta and vested interests.
"In fact, Sukhbir and Captain Amarinder Singh of the Congress party, competed with each other and booked an equal number of Sikh activists under UAPA and 124-A (sedition law) during their respective government's tenures," he said.
He reminded Sukhbir of his party’s support to the bill brought by the BJP government in enacting another ‘draconian law’ POTA in the parliament in December 2002. He also pointed out that when Congress amended UAPA in 2008 and then in 2012 to make it more stringent and draconian giving unbridled powers to investigating agencies, the Akali MPs did not oppose it.
