Chandigarh, June 5, 2023 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann not to weaken Punjab’s case vis a vis Panjab University by indulging in a defamation campaign against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal instead of targeting Haryana and exposing it for trying to capture the University through the back door.
Addressing newsmen here, senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said “it is shocking that Mr Bhagwant Mann has eroded the dignity of the high office he holds by indulging in a selective leak from a letter Mr Parkash Singh Badal wrote to the centre in 2008”. Explaining the entire issue, Dr Cheema said “following a demand from teachers and students of Panjab University who were agitating for an increase in the retirement age as well as increase in emolument for research scholars, the erstwhile Punjab government had expressed its no objection to the varsity being accorded central University status”.
He said this was however done with the condition that the University’s name would remain the same and that its statutory bodies – the Senate and Syndicate would not be tinkered with nor will there be any change in affiliation of Punjab colleges with the institution. “Mr Bhagwant Mann chose to ignore all these points while reading out the letter selectively to the media”. He also asserted that the chief minister has failed to point out that Mr Badal had clearly stated in the letter that the NOC should not deter the State from getting another central University and World University.
Dr Cheema said it was also condemnable that the chief minister did not disclose that the 2008 letter was withdrawn five days after it was written. “Mr Bhagwant Mann should have been upfront about this fact also”.
Meanwhile asserting that the 2008 letter had nothing to do with the case at hand, Dr Cheema said “Punjabis are perturbed as to why Mr Bhagwant Mann is attending repeated meetings called by the Punjab Governor to discuss re-affiliating colleges in Haryana with Panjab University. It seems this is being done under pressure of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convenor Arvind Kejriwal who is pressurizing Mann to succumb to the demands being made by the Haryana government. The chief minister should stop attending all such meetings immediately”.
Asking the chief minister to understand the real conspiracy at work, Dr Cheema said – “the Haryana government wants to make a comeback into Panjab University by affiliating its colleges with the institution. This will allow Haryana to have representation in the Senate and Syndicate, which are the governing bodies of the varsity.
All this is also designed to dilute Punjab’s right over Chandigarh which must be stoutly defended”, he said while highlighting how the AAP government had endangered Punjab’s right over Chandigarh by not failing to oppose Haryana’s demand for acquisition of land in the union territory to establish a new Vidhan Sabha besides other issues.
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