Attack on Gen Brar: Amarinder slams CM's silence

The "silence" of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the attack on Lieutenant General (retired) Kuldeep Singh Brar is "seditious", Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh alleged on Wednesday.

It is shocking that the chief minister has preferred to keep quiet on such a critical issue that is directly related to Punjab, he said.

"Badal's silence is just not criminal, it is seditious and betrays his moral cowardice," the Congress leader alleged.

Appealing to Badal to clarify his stand on the attack on General Brar, the Punjab Congress Committee president said, "Badal's silence simply amounts to approving the attack".

Brar, 78, was attacked by some men with knives in London on Sunday.

"On such issues, Badal cannot stick to his characteristic fence sitting position. You are either with the terrorists who attacked General Brar or against them," he said.

Singh claimed that his stand on Operation Bluestar was well known.

"You need to have moral courage to call spade a spade and that is what I did in 1984 and that is what I am doing now," he said in a statement.

However, reacting to one of Singh's statement given in connection with the attack on General Brar, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal said that in 1984, when Amarinder realised that Sikh masses are against Operation Bluestar, he went to the extent of resigning from the Congress party, only to rejoin it again after a gap of few years.

Cheema claimed that it was very unfortunate that instead of thinking about the welfare of the people and state, Amarinder has always tried to get political mileage out of such incidents.