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Sonia has neither time nor inclination for Akalis, says Ambika Soni

Congress president Sonia Gandhi would not entertain either Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal or his detractor Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, party general secretary Ambika Soni has claimed.

She told reporters that the main reason for keeping them at arm's length was that they had encouraged anti-national elements and had been votaries of separatism.

Neither the name of Sonia Gandhi, nor the shoulder of her party would be made available to settle the score of the two warring Akali leaders, she said.

Soni was responding to a query about Badal's reported statement that Tohra, in league with the Congress leadership, had hatched a conspiracy to weaken his government.

Soni expressed concern that developmental activities in Punjab had come to a grinding halt since the two Akali leaders began their war of attrition to oust each other.

Pointing out the financial mess through which the state was passing, she said it was a matter of shame that one of the most prosperous states has become bankrupt in just two years since the Akalis came to power.

She compared the Akali Dal-led coalition government with the Mohammad Tughlaq's reign, saying that the Akalis had made the state bankrupt just as the Muslim ruler had frittered away his treasury in just one year.

UNI

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