Badal wants Cong to disown Captain

He said the Akali Dal supports yesterday’s SGPC resolution urging the Akal Takht to summon Amarinder. The resolution was passed unanimously with the backing of even Tohra and his allies. ‘‘Amarinder Singh will have to pay dearly for confronting the abode of the Guru,’’ he said at a press conference.

There were references to late PM Indira Gandhi, Operation Bluestar and ‘‘Indira using some disgruntled individuals calling themselves panthic leaders’’. There was advice for Congressmen too: ‘‘The Congress, including its high command, must either take responsibility for this outrage or dissociate itself from the man who ordered it,’’ Badal said. ‘‘It is unbelievable that Amarinder could have taken such a decision without taking his high command into confidence,’’ he said.

In the firing line, of course, were the usual suspects — Tohra and his men. ‘‘I am shocked that a person (Tohra) who had received so much honour from the panth is going to the extent of forgiving and justifying the tragic sequence of events, including the police entry into the Golden Temple complex simply because he could have benefited from these heinous deeds. How low can you stoop, Mr Tohra?’’ Badal asked.

A part of the press conference was spent showering praises on the media for fighting ‘‘the people’s war’’ but as queries got increasingly difficult to field, he could hold himself no more: ‘‘What’s the matter? The newspapers wrote very favourably in the morning, what went wrong now?’’