Chandigarh: Thousands of Congress workers from across Punjab on Tuesday staged a demonstration against the Aam Aadmi Party government.
Led by the state party President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the party workers gathered outside the Punjab Congress Bhawan here and started marching towards the Chief Minister’s residence for the ‘gherao’. However, they were stopped by a police contingent, which prevented them from reaching the Chief Minister’s residence.
Speaking on the occasion, Warring demanded the dismissal of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and his arrest for being responsible for the alleged suicide of Gulzar Singh of Dirba after raising the drug issue in Punjab. He pointed out that Gulzar Singh had said in his dying declaration that Cheema was responsible for his suicide.
He also referred to the police brutality unleashed on Mohanjit Singh of Sheron village just because he had dared to show a black flag to the Chief Minister. Warring also questioned the Chief Minister’s silence over the protection granted to a rape accused. “The BJP wants AAP to help it in Gujarat by dividing the anti-BJP votes and, in a quid pro quo, the BJP will help AAP in Punjab,” he said, adding that this is why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was playing a fixed match with the Punjab Police over the arrest of corruption accused.
He asked why the ED did not act the way it acted in the case of the Congress leaders like Sadhu Singh, who were straightway arrested. The ED did not ask the Punjab Police to register a first information report (FIR) in that case, he pointed out, adding that in the case of AAP leaders it was dilly-dallying deliberately.
Lashing out at AAP for inducting convicted gangsters like Gupreet Sekhon, Warring said that while the people of Punjab wanted to get rid of the gangsters, the ruling party was inducting them and providing them with a political platform and power.
He said Sekhon had been convicted and sentenced and was out just because the High Court had suspended his sentence. “What message are you giving to people of Punjab?” he asked CM Mann.
(IANS)
