DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday attacked the Shiromani Akali Dal, terming its plan to hold statewide protests against his government as "theatrics", aimed at reviving it fortunes following the loss of face due over the farm laws issue. The opposition party has decided to hold protests across the state on Monday over high power tariffs, taxes on fuel and the law and order situation. Having lost its moral right to face people of the state due to their doublespeak on many vital issues, including the ongoing farmers' agitation, the SAD is now trying hard to get back into their good books ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, said Amarinder Singh in a statement. Dubbing the planned protests as "theatrics by the Badals in their frustrated bid to revive the party's devastated fortunes", the CM said these desperate tactics would not work as the Akalis have completely lost face in the wake of their fiasco over the farm laws, which exposed their "shameless double standards". The chief minister termed the Akali claims of rising power tariffs, higher taxes on fuel and law and order situation as ridiculous, maintaining that it was their party that had plunged Punjab into such a mess during their 10-year rule, in collusion with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). From the state's law and order to its fiscal situation, the past four years of the Congress rule have witnessed a massive improvement across key parameters, in sharp contrast to the chaos and destruction that had prevailed under the Akalis, said the chief minister. Far from the law and order collapse under the Badal rule, when gangsters and goons were freely roaming the streets of the state, Punjabis are now finally heaving a sigh of relief, he claimed. Despite the COVID crisis, things were looking up on the financial front, with zero pendency achieved by the state treasury for the first time in 15 years, he added. Amarinder Singh said the false propaganda that the SAD is trying to spread through these political antics will not work with the people of Punjab, who had neither forgotten nor forgiven the Akalis-BJP rulers for the sufferings to which they were subjected for 10 years. People here have seen through the double standards of these parties, he added. (editor@dailyworld.in)