Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today described the twin principles of 'socialism and secularism' as the underlying spirit of Indian Constitution, saying any deviation from these two basic tenets would be against the interest of the country.
Stating this on the sidelines of 'Sangat Darshan' programme in Phagwara assembly segment today, the Chief Minister said that India being a land of diversities was endowed with people hailing from various religions, castes, creeds, and linguistic background.
"In the backdrop of this very fact, the forefathers of our Constitution had laid special thrust on the concepts of socialism and secularism in our constitution," he said.
Citing an example of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Mr Badal said that even the great monarchs like him had made the principle of secularism an essential part of his governance.
"No country can survive without these doctrines as they firmly hold its social fabric together," he added.
Taking a jibe at former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for his statement regarding "precarious" financial condition in the state, the Mr Badal said rather than worrying about the issues of governance, the Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar must try to set the house of his party in order.
He said before issuing such "baseless" statements Captain Amarinder Singh and state Congress Chief Partap Singh Bajwa must try to ensure discipline in their party by nailing the prevailing infighting.
Captain Amarinder had yesterday alleged that the "ruling Akalis appeared to have resigned to bankruptcy as the fait accompli for Punjab, claiming that nobody seemed to be concerned over the precarious financial situation in the state".
Mr Badal also called upon the entire opposition to play a constructive role by co-operating the government in making Punjab a frontrunner state in the country.
"Healthy criticism by opposition is always welcome but criticism for the sake of criticism is undesirable and unwarranted," he added.
The chief minister said the "step motherly" treatment by Congress coupled with its "regressive" policies have broken the backbone of Punjab's economy.
He alleged that Congress had always adopted an anti-Punjab stance against the state due to which the development of the state suffered.
Mr Badal said, "Punjab's economy has been adversely affected due to the partition of the country and prolonged militancy but it got the fatal blow when the Congress granted incentives to the neighboring states, which led to the mass exodus of the industry of the state to these hilly states".
He alleged that Congress had a notorious past of adopting an anti-Punjab stance due to which the state has suffered a lot.
"Punjab was probably the only state in the country which has been hitherto deprived of its capital," he said.
To a query, the Chief Minister said he will soon meet the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for seeking the release of pending Rs 400 crore sanctioned by the 13th Finance Commission.
He said that the funds sanctioned by constitutional body like Finance Commission should be given to the state and that he would soon take up this issue with the Union Government.
Stating that diversification of agriculture was the need of the hour, the chief minister said that it was must for bailing out farmers of the state from current agrarian crisis.
Mr Badal said that the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had made the country self reliant in food production by exploiting its only available natural resources in terms of water and fertility of soil.
However, he said that now when agriculture was no longer a profitable venture the farmers of the state must be encouraged to grow more remunerative and less water guzzling crops like maize by providing MSP on them.
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