Chandigarh: The stand-off between Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and new challenger AAP intensified on Sunday with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal asking Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to investigate all international funding being received by AAP, especially from radical elements abroad.
In a letter to the union home minister, Badal, who is also the Punjab Home Minister, sought an immediate investigation into the "huge amount of money being received by AAP from abroad".
"This included funds being sent into the country by radical elements through surrogate organisations. We need to investigate these organisations, their source of funding, the people behind them as well as their agenda for sending funds to AAP," he said in his letter.
Badal said this was a "very serious matter as attempts were being made by some extremist elements to disturb the hard-won peace of Punjab". He said such elements should not be allowed to succeed at any cost, adding that the suspected funding was coming from radical elements who were hell bent on destabilising Punjab before the 2017 assembly elections.
In the letter, he also detailed how the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was aligning with radicals in Punjab and was holding regularly meetings with them.
"It was due to this that radical groups, which had earlier been completely marginalised, were becoming active again. According to our information an understanding was reached that AAP would hand over the SGPC to the radical Sikhs in lieu of support from them to win the next assembly elections," he claimed.
Badal accused the AAP of being linked to recent incidents of sacrilege of holy books of various religions, and said that he had conveyed the information to National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval earlier.
"This should be stemmed immediately as this motive was in league with anti-national elements who wanted to strike out at India by destabilising Punjab," he claimed.
