Mistakes could be forgiven, not sins: Mann on Sukhbir’s apology

Hoshiarpur: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said that those responsible for the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib would be given exemplary punishment.

Speaking at the state-level ‘Van Mahotsav’ function at Hoshiarpur, Mann said that once evidence is compiled, action would be taken against the guilty.

Reacting to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s apology to Akal Takht following allegations against his party for taking controversial decisions during its rule from 2007-17 and failing to take action in the 2105 sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing incidents, Mann said that mistakes could be forgiven, not sins. He said that the Akali leadership had already been held guilty in the court of public and now it was time to punish them legally. He claimed that startling facts had come to the fore in the inquiry in the sacrilege case.

“If our scriptures are not safe in our own land, how can we expect their sanctity will be preserved elsewhere?” he said.

He said the rebel Akali leaders who had trained guns at Sukhbir Badal, were partners in crime and were shedding crocodile tears only.

Mann said that the turn of events that had brought an abrupt end to prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year-old rule in Bangladesh had taught the lesson that authoritarian rule could not last forever. “There is a limit to people’s tolerance. You cannot go on nursing your own ambitions and feeding your own families. There is a lesson to be learnt from the way angry people ransacked the Bangladesh prime minister’s house and did not even spare her pets. Wisdom lies in staying in touch with the public and working for them,” he said.

The chief minister inaugurated the state-level Van Mahotsav by planting a sapling at the community centre in Hoshiarpur. He was accompanied by state forest minister Lal Chand Kataruchak, revenue minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa and member of Parliament Raj Kumar Chabbewal. He said that there was a plan to plant three crore saplings across the state this year under the state’s green initiative.

Mann handed over carbon credit cheques to farmers for adopting environmentally sustainable agriculture practices, such as direct seeding and low tillage. Under the scheme, ₹45 crore would be distributed to the farmers in four phases, he said.

He appealed to farmers who avail free electricity for irrigation, to plant at least four trees around their tubewells, adding that the government could bring in a law to implement this scheme.