Capt venting over Dakha defeat by slashing Cheema’s security cover, says Sukhbir

When contacted, Cheema said there were orders of withdrawal of two security personnel earlier and he on Thursday received an order that out of the total seven, five security men would be withdrawn. “This is cheap politics. It is political,” he alleged, adding that he earlier had four security personnel and after a threat assessment by the government, he was provided “three more security personnel and a security gypsy about 7-8 months ago”.

“I had not asked for additional security cover at that time,” he said.

A government functionary however said that withdrawal of security was part of an exercise of pruning security cover to persons, “irrespective of party affiliations”. The functionary said that assessment was conducted time to time and as many as “600 personnel were withdrawn from private and political persons in the last one month…”

In the end of September, the functionary said that one person was withdrawn from Cheema’s security detail and last week there was an order to withdraw four more security personnel as he was, as per rules, entitled to only two.

The functionary also said that no order of withdrawal was issued on Thursday.

Sukhbir however said he had “apprehended that the CM deliberately wanted to expose his opponent’s life to danger as he felt helpless in dealing with the challenge mounted by the SAD leadership and workers to the wrong and anti-people policies of the Congress government.” He added, “More Akali leaders could become the target of Amarinder’s politics of personal and political vendetta but…Akali warriors have faced these cheap and petty tactics of successive Congress governments in the past and will continue to do so to defend the people’s rights in future also. We thrive on challenges and crises.”

Sukhbir said that “if any harm came to Akali leaders as a result of the government’s vengeful decision, the chief minister would be held directly responsible for it”.

The former deputy chief minister said that “neither the party nor Dr Cheema had ever sought any security cover from the government for the SAD senior vice-president and the security provided to him was on the basis of the threat perception to his life as per the government’s own professional intelligence reports”. “This shows the scant respect the chief minister and those around him have for human life,” said Sukhbir.