‘Like Pradhan, Punjab education minister resignation too is non-negotiable’: State Congress chief

A. Everything is on record. FIRs have been registered. If there were no paper leaks, as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann falsely claims, why were the FIRs registered? All newspapers have reported about these FIRs.

Q. AAP has described the pharmacy exam episode as a sophisticated cheating racket, not a classic pre-exam paper leak.

A. This is just a cover up. The AAP is trying to hide behind semantics. The government is trying to tell us it was a “sophisticated” way of cheating using technology. That creates doubt as the government has admitted to its failure. You never know how many more such cases might have taken place with the help of technology. Imagine the impact on thousands of other candidates who took the exam. Even in the NEET matter, it was not all the 22 lakh students who got the leaked paper. But the fact is that all of them were affected. So is the case with the pharmacy paper and the government cannot escape the responsibility.

Q. You have demanded accountability and Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains’ resignation.

A. Like the the demand for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation at the centre for NEET paper leaks was non-negotiable, so is that of Harjot Singh Bains’. Responsibility must be fixed. The AAP can’t say one thing in Delhi and do totally opposite thing in Punjab. First resignation then inquiry. There was a time when ministers would take moral responsibility and resign. We don’t expect that morality from the AAP, but we will ensure to enforce the accountability and responsibility.

Q. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has repeatedly claimed that there has not been any paper leak during his 4four and half years in office and that the pharmacy incident was only cheating that was stopped within minutes. How do you respond?

A.The CM is lyingly shamelessly. I don’t know why he is trying to defend the indefensible. Maybe he is being asked to do so by his Delhi masters.

Q. Does Congress have a roadmap for reaching out to Gen Z ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls and tapping the first-time and young voters?

A. Congress has always set a high score for the Gen Z. Remember it was our late leader Rajeev Gandhi Ji who brought down the voting age from 21 to 18. Our students’ wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) belongs to the Gen Z only. Moreover, Rahul Gandhi remains the most popular leader among this generation as was seen during the recent protests also.

Q. Youth in Punjab face high unemployment, drug issues, and examination-related anxiety. How will Congress’s Gen-Z outreach address these pain points beyond slogans and photo ops?

A. We will have to go beyond the slogans and photo-ops. Punjab has a huge potential. We need to channelise our resources and potential. We know the problem and we know there is a solution also, which is not instant. It will need a long term comprehensive planning. We need to prevent the exodus of our youth to foreign lands.

Q. AAP has tried to position itself as the party of the young and has highlighted government-school NEET successes. How does Congress plan to differentiate its youth outreach and regain the trust of voters who shifted away in 2022?

A: The AAP is capitalising the ground work the Congress has done. They don’t possess any magic wand that they could deliver such results within four years. It was a sustained effort by the successive governments. AAP is trying to claim the credit for what the Congress did. The AAP is like its mother organisaiton, the BJP. Like the BJP claims that nothing had happened in India before 2014 and everything started after that, the AAP is doing a similar thing in Punjab that nothing had happened here till 2022. This hilarious.

Q. Despite directions from high command, the factionalism within Congress remains unresolved. This was again seen during separate visits to Barnala protestors by you and other leaders like Charanjit Singh Channi, Partap Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Why?

A. We don’t believe it is factionalism. Every individual leader has every right to aspire for the top post. Since the Congress functions in a democratic way and allows everyone to speak his/her mind, you start describing it as factionalism. All of us have unity of mission and purpose to bring back the Congress government in Punjab. As regards Barnala visit, there is nothing unusual or abnormal about leaders going there separately. All of us have prescheduled engagements.

Q. Doesn’t the competition for influence and the CM face risk damaging the party’s electoral prospects?

A. Don’t you think that competition is a good thing to have as people work harder? Remember one thing, the Congress leaders and workers have never worked at cross purposes or against each other in elections. All of us have a common goal to defeat and throw out the AAP government, which is most corrupt and inefficient where the Chief Minister still believes that he is performing a comedy show on the stage and not running the state. And that is the sad part of it.