In Ludhiana for religious visit, Saini takes dig at AAP: reject politics of lies

Saini turned his focus squarely on politics, launching a sustained attack on the AAP government in Punjab. (file photo)

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, during a visit to Punjab on Sunday, combined a spiritual outreach with a strong political message.

After paying obeisance at prominent religious sites in Ludhiana district, Saini launched a scathing attack on ruling AAP and asked the people to reject “politics of lies” and “vote out the Bhagwant Mann dispensation in next year’s assembly polls. Saini also claimed that the AAP government had done no work even though four years passed. “Jokes cannot fill stomachs,” he said while taking a veiled dig at the CM.

His visit underscored both reverence for Sikh and Hindu traditions and an appeal to voters ahead of the evolving political landscape in the state.

The Haryana CM Saini began his visit at the historic Gurudwara Charan Kanwal Sahib in Machhiwara. He said, “The Sikh Gurus made immense sacrifices not for any single community, but for the entire nation. The society must move forward by imbibing their teachings.” Responding to questions from the media, he said that “without the sacrifices of the Gurus, the course of Indian history would have been very different”, and condemned what he described as “irresponsible and condemnable remarks made by some opposition leaders about the Gurus for political gain”.

Following his visit to the Gurdwara, Saini offered prayers and performed Jalabhishek at the ancient Shri Mukteshwar Shiv Temple (Muktidham) in Chehlan, seeking peace, prosperity and happiness for the people of Haryana, Punjab and the country.

Later in the day, addressing a public meeting in Samrala, he turned his focus squarely on politics, launching a sustained attack on the AAP government in Punjab. He said, “Governance should be rooted in service, honesty and public welfare”, but alleged that “the current Punjab government had reduced politics to the mere pursuit of power”.

Saini claimed that “both the previous Congress government and the present AAP government had failed to fulfill promises made to the people, contrasting this with what he described as the performance of the double engine BJP government in Haryana”. He cited compensation to farmers for crop damage and livestock loss, direct benefit transfers under various schemes, and welfare measures for senior citizens, women and labourers as examples of Haryana’s governance model. Taking repeated jibes at the Punjab leadership, he said “jokes cannot fill stomachs” and alleged that four years had passed without meaningful work on the ground.

He questioned Punjab government’s stand on issues such as minimum support price procurement, labour welfare, unemployment and drug abuse. He accused the AAP government of indulging in politics instead of addressing problems faced by youth and farmers, and challenged it to provide concrete data on employment generation, compensation and action against corruption.