Cong condemns SAD for 'not observing' I-Day

LUDHIANA: A section of the district Congress party, on Saturday, condemned the reported non-observance of Independence Day by the leadership of SAD, the main Opposition party in the state.
In separate statements, PPCC Secretary Ramesh Joshi, former district urban unit president Krishan Kumar Bawa, former vice-president Pardeep Malhotra and former state youth Congress general secretary Rajinder Soi alleged that SAD president Parkash Singh Badal showed disrespect for the day of national celebrations by not organising any function in this regard anywhere in the state.
It is shameful on part of Badal who claims himself to be the true representative of people to skip flag hoisting on this occasion, they said adding that doing so becomes all the more important because he is presently enjoying cabinet status by virtue of being the Opposition leader in the state Assembly.
Accusing him of adopting double standards, the Congress leaders said that Badal attended his party''s gathering in the memory of Shaheed Karnail Singh Issru on this day but failed to unfurl the national flag.
"This showed that Badal was more interested in pursuing personal agenda through hollow religious and political means and lacked the sense of being an Indian," they alleged.