Chandigarh: Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked Justice (Retd.) Ranjit Singh to recuse himself from the Commission of Inquiry, set up by the Congress government to look into incidents of sacrilege in the state. 

"I request you not to be a party to the anti-Sikh agenda of the Congress party and the government formed by it in Punjab. I request you instead to uphold the dignity of the judiciary and...recuse yourself from the Chairmanship of the Commission," Badal said in his reply to a notice received from the commission.  

"We oppose the attempts of the Congress party to misuse the august name of the judiciary to promote its petty anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh agenda," he alleged.  

"The express purpose of the Commission is to give a legal cover to the political design of the Congress to cause confusion among the Sikh masses by falsely blaming Sikh organisations and institutions themselves for the most tragic and painful acts of sacrilege," said Badal.  

The one-man commission headed by former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice (Retd.) Ranjit Singh was formed by the Congress government in April last year, a month after it came to power in the state.  

The Commission was tasked with looking into the cases of sacrilege, including an incident in Kotakpura in Faridkot where two persons died. The previous SAD-BJP government in Punjab had appointed the Justice Zora Singh Commission to look into the incidents of sacrilege. Its report was dismissed by the Congress government. PTI