Stay with Cong, regain top spot: PM

“Though the nation is progressing well with 8 per cent growth, there is a need to increase the same to 10 per cent, for which the UPA government is striving hard. To ensure similar growth for Punjab, help re-elect a Congress government. It’s a long journey, as the loss of 20 years cannot be undone in just five years”.

The PM also played the religion card, when he hinted at starting more bus services to Pakistan for helping Sikh pilgrims visit shrines across the border. “We are striving hard to improve relations with Pakistan to help remove the climate of uncertainty along the border. This would help ensure speedy progress in Punjab”.

An optimistic Manmohan Singh went on to predict the emergence of Punjab as a world trading centre once relations with Pakistan improved. “This can be achieved only at the hands of the Congress, as the state and Central governments would work in coordination in the next few years.”

Lashing out at the Akalis, the PM said farmer suicides took place during the tenure of Parkash Singh Badal, while the state’s progress was stalled at the hands of Akalis. “It is the fight between the secular Congress forces on the one hand and those bent upon dividing the state at the hands of separatists and religious forces on the other.”

The PM also hit out at Badal for not thinking about Punjab’s welfare and not waiving off Punjab’s debt during the previous NDA government. “As interest piled on the debt, it was the UPA government which waived off the pending debts on Punjab, resulting in benefit to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore for the state”.

The PM addressed as many as four political rallies in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Ludhiana, to help boost the poll prospects of the Congress in Punjab, which is striving hard to get itself re-elected.

Earlier, Amarinder charged the Akalis with retarding Punjab’s growth and throwing the state behind by many years. He called for bringing back the Congress in the interest of the state and the next generation, to help make it the number one state again. Lashing out at the Akalis and their leader, a charged-up Amarinder said they were unnerved and that’s why Badal was claiming that there was a threat to his life. “If he fears for his life so much, I can take him around catching hold of his finger.”

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Shamsher Singh Dullo welcomed urged the electorate to help bring the Congress back to power to help strengthen the PM and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He also lashed out at the Akalis, charging them of supporting those who killed innocents in Punjab and brought in terrorism.