Bhattal invokes Beant, wants Capt, Home secy to quit

After days of chanting his name, Punjab Congress dissidents, led by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, today gathered at the samadhi of late chief minis...

After days of chanting his name, Punjab Congress dissidents, led by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, today gathered at the samadhi of late chief minister Beant Singh and swore by his memory to unitedly topple the Amarinder government.

For good measure, they also asked the Chief Minister to resign. In a hard-hitting speech, with Beant’s portrait in the background, Bhattal lashed out at ‘‘those who tried to hurt Tej Parkash’’ and proceeded to demand that ‘‘the Home Minister and Home Secretary should both resign as they were responsible.’’ Amarinder has the Home portfolio while Sanjit K. Sinha is Home Secretary. Bhattal said these two were responsible for the bid to trap Beant’s son and Cabinet minister Tej Parkash Singh in a false corruption case.

Bhattal had a message for other officers too: ‘‘Many bureaucrats and police officers are pressuring, luring or beseeching our MLAs. We are keeping an eye on them. Baad vich bakshe nahi jaange (None will be spared later).’’

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On his part, when Tej was asked about his earlier demand for suspending Vigilance Bureau chief A.P. Pandey and his threat to quit ministry, he said: ‘‘We have moved forward. Now our demand includes Amarinder and Sinha as well.’’

Bhattal said Amarinder should have offered a probe by the CBI into allegations of his son’s alleged involvement in mysterious financial transactions ‘‘within 12 hours since the government was efficient enough to file a case against me within 24 hours after a court threw it out the window.’’

It was soon ‘‘spokesman’’ Harnam Das Johar’s turn to administer an oath in the name of Beant Singh and God. ‘‘Je saade kise MLA te najayaz dabav paya giya, ya kise de parivar de member nu jhoothe case vich fasaan da yatan hoya tan asee dushman de khilaaf ikathhe larange (If any MLA of ours is pressured, or anyone’s family framed, we will fight the enemy together),’’ Johar spoke, all MLAs repeating after him. The punchline was reserved as a sign-off: ‘‘Ik te hamla sab te hamla samjhaya jaavega (Attack on one will be considered an attack on all).’’

Bhattal recalled many an MLA’s name who she claimed were fixed in a game of intrigue. Ruling out any plans to return to Delhi, Bhattal said: ‘‘We understand party chief Sonia Gandhi has said yesterday that she will now deal with problems in Punjab and Kerala.’’

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