Slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's photo on election posters of BJP candidate from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu had Punjab Congress leaders fuming, with Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring Wednesday accusing the three-time MP of “defaming his late grandfather and the Congress leader by making a mockery of his martyrdom for votes”. Beant Singh, a dyed-in-wool Congressman, was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack at the secretariat complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. His grandson and three-time Congress MP Bittu recently defected to the BJP and the party gave him the ticket from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency. In a post on X, Warring put out the photo of a poster reading “Es vaar 400 paar. vote support elect Ravneet Singh Bittu, BJP candidate from Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat’ and had photos of Beant Singh along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar and Ludhiana BJP district president Rajnish Dhiman. Warring said on X that Bittu had exposed his “hunger for power” by shifting to the BJP cam, and asked Bittu to “at least spare the white turban of Beant Singh ji”. Asking the MP not to defame Beant Singh, Warring said in the post, “You are making a mockery of his (Beant Singh’s) martyrdom. Use intellect.” Leader of the Opposition and Congress MLA from Qadian Partap Singh Bajwa, too, slammed Bittu. Bajwa told The Indian Express, “Beant Singh’s physical death might have occurred on August 31, 1995, but the action of Bittu has caused his ideological death.” “Bittu had blood relation with the slain CM, but his ownership is vested with the Congress as he was a Congress chief minister,” Bajwa added. Punjab Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who is the frontrunner among Congress contenders for the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat, also hit out at Bittu, “This is unfortunate. It is another matter that they are a family, but Bittu has insulted the martyr.” “Beant Singh sacrificed his life for unity and integrity, so the use of his photo by divisive forces was very unfortunate,” Ashu added. Hitting back at Warring and Punjab Congress in a post on X, Bittu said, “Martyrs are above party lines. Besides, Congress never recognised the supreme sacrifice made by my grandfather.” “PCC (Punjab Congress Committee) should tell whether in elections or at party programmes in the past 25 years, his (Beant Singh’s) sacrifice was even mentioned, to say the least,” Bittu asked. Bittu also asked, “Why statues of Beant Singh ji in front of the Congress Bhavan in Chandigarh were removed?”
