The North News
Chandigarh, April 15
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of using the state machinery for political vendetta, following the registration of an FIR against Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa over his comments on grenade recoveries in Punjab. Talking to media after holding meeting with Congress leaders in Chandigarh, Warring said the timing and swiftness of the FIR “100 percent smells of revenge,” adding that it appeared as though the Chief Minister was deciding when and how to jail political opponents. “The enthusiasm with which officials rushed to register the case is enough to show this is nothing but political retaliation,” he said in a strongly worded statement.
The FIR, filed at the State Cyber Crime Police Station in Mohali, relates to Bajwa’s recent televised remark claiming that 50 grenades had entered Punjab, 18 of which had already been used. The statement triggered outrage, with the Aam Aadmi Party government accusing Bajwa of fearmongering.
Standing firmly by Bajwa, Warring said the Congress leadership had convened a special meeting in solidarity with the Leader of Opposition and to send a “clear, strong message” to the Chief Minister: “You can’t intimidate Punjab Congress.”
He condemned what he described as the AAP government’s “complicity of incompetence” and said it was endangering the hard-won peace in Punjab. “We have faced terrorists’ bullets to restore peace in this state. We will not allow it to be sabotaged again by your ineptitude,” Warring said.
Doubling down, Warring affirmed, “We repeat, reiterate and reaffirm with full responsibility that what Bajwa sahab said in his interview is true. Grenades are being hurled in Punjab like stones, and you are asking us not to warn people?”
He added that the Congress would continue to “wake up” the government, whether the AAP leadership likes it or not. “You may be asleep, but Punjab cannot afford your slumber. We will do our job—shake you out of your inertia—before this incompetence plunges the state back into anarchy,” he said.
