New Delhi: Punjab today is a burning volcano on the brink of a civil war if it is not controlled, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur said in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, in a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
“The government is only interested in looting Punjab and spending it to make (Arvind) Kejriwal and his government shine across the nation,” she said during a debate on the problem of drug abuse in the country.
The Bathinda MP accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of being responsible for the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala in May.
“A chief minister withdraws security of oppositions, singers, etc. and then puts it on social media. A renowned singer, Sidhu Moosewala was killed because the chief minister withdrew the security and told the whole world about it,” Kaur alleged.
Talking about the perils of drug abuse, the former union minister said that Punjab was under a “Jungle Raj” (lawlessness) and that the “gangsters are running Punjab from jails.” “For drug smuggling, Punjab ranks number one in the country. Punjab is spreading maximum drugs in the country. We are a border state. This weak government is itself helping Pakistan,” she claimed
Attacking the AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal, the SAD MP also alleged that the Punjab government is using money to help the AAP in other parts of the country.
“Firearms being poured, drugs being poured and the government has closed its eyes. The government is only interested in looting Punjab and spending it to make (Arvind) Kejriwal and his government shine across the nation,” Kaur said.
There were “two super CMs” over the Punjab chief minister who ran the show, she said, indirectly referring to Kejriwal and AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha.
“There used to be so many complaints of people sitting next to him (Bhagwant Mann)…to change their seating (in Parliament). The CM (then an MP), who used to come intoxicated at 11 am in parliament, is now running the state,” she claimed. “On roads, it’s written ‘don’t drink and drive’, but he is driving a whole state.”
The SAD MP also highlighted the 2016 incident when Mann was found guilty by a parliamentary committee of breaching the security of Parliament by video-recording its details. That had resulted in the suspension of Mann from the remaining period of the Winter Session of Parliament.
“As an MP, he made videos of Parliament from inside so that our enemies would know where to enter from and where to exit from. That’s why he was shown way out (of Parliament),” Kaur said. “After a party was born in the state in 2014, things have happened that Punjab or Punjabis couldn’t even think of.”
It (the menace of drugs) “scares me the direction in which Punjab is heading”, she said.
The Akali MP also attacked the previous Congress government in the state between 2017 and 2022 which was led by Amarinder Singh for over four years and then Charanjit Singh Channi.
“They (the Congress) made two CMs. They removed their own chief minister and the new chief minister sold Punjab. He has returned to the country (from abroad) now after 10 months,” she said, referring to Channi.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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