Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to ask Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal to clear the party’s stand on the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC), stating this was necessary to end the doublespeak in the AAP central and Punjab units on this sensitive issue.
In a statement here, the SAD leader said “it is shocking that AAP wants to vote in favour of UCC in the Rajya Sabha even as Bhagwant Mann is befooling Punjabis by stating that the party is against it in Punjab ”. Calling for a stop to this doublespeak, Dr Daljit Cheema said “earlier AAP has adopted the same deception on the issue of Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal”.
Reminding the chief minister of the statement of Sandeep Pathak – the party’s Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, Dr Cheema said “Pathak articulated the party’s stand on the national level by asserting that AAP was in favour of UCC in principle. This means the party was gearing up to vote in favour of UCC once it is taken up for approval in the Rajya Sabha. The Punjab chief minister’s statement against UCC has no meaning in this context”.
Dr Cheema said in case the chief minister was not trying to deceive Punjabis he should ask Arvind Kejriwal to direct the party’s Rajya Sabha member to take back his statement on UCC and reflect the same stand as Bhagwant Mann. “In case this is not done Punjabis will understand that AAP is again lying and deceiving them on UCC in the same manner in which it has deceived them on the issue of SYL”.