‘Credit war’ in Cong as CLP,PCC offices compete for headlines
Youth Cong chief clueless about parallel protest,arrest of Bittu
As much as it is seen firefighting the ruling alliance,the opposition Congress in Punjab is locked in a fierce credit war within. While a game of one-upmanship is on between Pradesh Congress Committee led by president Partap Singh Bajwa and Congress Legislative Party leader Sunil Jakhar,the present incumbent and his predecessor in the Youth Congress are holding parallel protests on the same issue,at different venues.
The PCC office on May 29 announced that Bajwa will meet Union HRD Minister Pallam Raju to seek an inquiry against Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka in the eduaction department scams. Bajwa did not get to meet Raju before he left for his weeklong trip to the US. However,Jakhar Thursday called on the Minister in New Delhi and extracted the promise of the Cemtre sending a fact-finding team. A memorandum drafted by the CLP office was submitted to the minister by Jakhar giving details on the scam.
The press statement issued by the CLP office read,“The Congress Legislative Party would like an independent,fair and transparent probe done by a central agency in a time-bound manner.” Within minutes,the PCC issued its own press statement saying Jakhar submitted the memorandum on behalf of the PCC president. Other than replacing Jakhar’s name in press statement issued by CLP office with “Congress delegation”,the PCC memorandum said,“for the truth to emerge,it is highly imperative that initially a fact-finding team of your department be sent to Punjab to uncover the scandal.”
PCC official spokesman Sukhpal Khaira says both the PCC and CLP had submitted their own memorandums. “Bajwa had signed the memorandum prepared by PCC before he left for the US but he could not meet the HRD minister perhaps due to his other engagements,” he said.
It is not the first instance of the two not working in tandem. Jakhar chose to stay away from the much-hyped visit of Bajwa to Mann village in Lambi to protest against “harassment” of villagers booked by the police for violence during the block samiti polls. Also,during the budget session,while Jakhar led a mock assembly outside,Bajwa appointed MLAs as in-charge of districts for his installation ceremony thereby reducing the mock assembly’s “strength”.
As for the Youth Congress,it is a curious case of the incumbent not knowing about his predecessor’s plan to “hijack” his protest march. After announcing to gherao the residence of chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to demand arrest of killers of Sukhraj Singh — Youth Congress leader who was killed at Patti during the block samiti polls — Punjab Youth Congress president Vikramjit Chaudhary found his predecessor,MP Ravneet Bittu staging his own protest near the venue,the same time,the same day.
What rubbed salt to the injury was some papers chose to carry pictures of Bittu being arrested,shadowing Chaudhary’s own arrest and protest march. Chaudhary,when contacted,said the protest was a Youth Congress programme. “We had announced to gherao the CM’s residence at a press conference. I was not aware of Bittu also holding a protest. I read about his arrest in the papers the next day,” he said.
Bittu,however,said he came to the protest to show solidarity for the cause. “I was associated with Sukhraj during my stint as PYC president when he was the block president,Patti. I had called up Chaudhary to congratulate him when he had announced to gherao the CM’s residence. Since we were separated by the police with barricades while trying to reach the CM’s residence,Chaudhary and I were detained at different places and perhaps he did not get to know about it,” he said.
Bittu had issued his own press statement on Wednesday to inform about his “detainment”. It mentioned the names of five other Youth Congress office-bearers who were detained. Chaudhary’s name did not figure in the list.
The press statement of Chaudhary mentioned the same five names as ones arrested during the protest march with him minus Bittu’s.
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