Punjab govt flays Badal over his beacon remarks

The Punjab government on Thursday termed former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's reported statement on red beacons as "mere tokenism" and asked him to take up meaningful issues instead of indulging in frivolous opposition.

Dubbing Badal's remarks as "symptomatic of the anti-people culture in the party (SAD)", an official spokesperson said that if he was finding it difficult to connect the elimination of VIP culture with public welfare then it clearly showed the extent to which the Akalis were alienated from the people of Punjab, which had translated into the party's poor show in the recent Assembly polls.

On Wednesday, a section of media quoted Badal as saying that there would be no impact on removing red beacons from vehicles of the VIPs on commoners in Punjab.

As the state's former chief minister, Badal should constructively work with the government in the interest of the people of the state and not indulge in expressing opposition for the sake of it, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson urged Badal to graciously accept that times had changed and there was no place for VIP culture in the modern world.