Chandigarh, January 03, 2017: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the true colours of the Congress and its commitment towards fulfilment of its promises had been revealed today with Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh flatly refusing to implement the unemployment dole promise made to youth in the party's 2012 election manifesto.
In a statement here, senior SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said Mr Virbahdra Singh had claimed that the promise of an unemployment dole to the youth of Himachal was made by few people who had no experience of running a government. "Now it is up to Punjab Congress president Mr Amarinder Singh to clarify if a similar promise made to the youth of Punjab was done at the instance of a poll manager like Prashant Kishore. If this was so Amarinder must tell Punjabis why he is deliberately cheating them when he has no intention of honouring his fake promises".
Mr Dhindsa said Punjab Congress party incharge Asha Kumari should also come clean and reveal whether she was part of this conspiracy to betray and backstab Punjabis. "Did you borrow this scheme from your princely colleague Virbhadra knowing fully well that your party had succeeded in fooling the youth of Himachal to vote for you on the basis of this promise and wanted to replicate it in Punjab".
The Akali MP said the Himachal CM had also proven that he was quite adept at lying like his princely colleague Amarinder Singh. "Virbahadra was part of the committee which made the 2012 election manifesto but now is denying the same and has even stated that giving any unemployment dole is a utopian concept and is not practical in India. Amarinder Singh had also in the run up to the 2007 assembly elections promised to retain the free power facility and social welfare schemes initiated by Badal (Parkash Singh) Sahab but reneged on this promise immediately after coming to power and stopped the same".
Mr Dhindsa said this was not all. Amarinder had spoilt the future of an entire generation of youth in Punjab by banning recruitment in government service during his tenure as chief minister. "How can the youth of Punjab trust such a person to fulfil any of the promises made to them", he added.
The Akali leader said as far as the SAD-BJP government was concerned, instead of making fake promises like Amarinder, it had given employment to nearly 2.25 lakh youth. He said 30,000 youth who were in contractual jobs had been absorbed into government service. "Beside this we have also upgraded the skills of a few lakh youth and made them employable. All this is possible because Badal Sahab is committed to take youth forward by giving them concrete opportunities. The Punjab Congress only wants to misuse youth like that done by the party in Himachal", he added