Last month, CM Mann removed Fauja Singh Sarari as a minister, four months after a controversy erupted after Sarari was purportedly heard in an audio discussing a plan to allegedly trap some contractors for extortion. While Sarari, considered close to the Delhi AAP camp, survived for four months, he was eventually forced to step down. After ousting Sarari from his Cabinet, Mann inducted his aide Dr Balbir Singh as a minister.
A few weeks ago, Mann ordered the closure of a liquor factory in Zira, which is owned by a former Akali leader, who has also been engaged in the liquor business in Delhi. Following months of protests by Zira farmers against the distillery, Mann suddenly took this action that took the government circles by surprise. Interestingly, many in his dispensation were clueless about his move until he released a video ordering the shutdown of the alcohol plant. Even several officials in the CM’s Office (CMO) were not in the loop in this regard. The government has not issued the closure order so far though.
Recently, Mann reportedly refused to appoint an IIT graduate Naval Aggarwal, who is considered close to AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, as an OSD in the CMO, appointing instead his old friend Manjit Singh Sidhu as his OSD (public relations).
Sources in the government said Mann was in no mood to appoint Aggarwal as his OSD and that his appointment issue was part of the agenda for discussion at the Cabinet meeting last Friday but it was not taken up. Chief Secretary VK Janjua had to call a meeting of the government’s e-governance society Monday to discuss if Aggarwal could be appointed as the OSD to governance reforms minister, with the meeting deciding that he would be accommodated as a consultant in the governance reforms department. Janjua however said the meeting did not discuss the Aggarwal issue and that it was held to discuss the working of seva kendras and other governance reforms.
Sources said aiming for his new “avatar” Mann has now also been putting his foot down on the issue of transfers and postings of officers. An official said that his office recently refused to clear a list of postings and transfers of several officers. This list was sent back to the Chief Secretary and then the officers of the CM’s choice were given the necessary postings.
Last month, Mann also adopted a bold stance while defusing the strike by the state government officers following the arrest of one of their colleagues by the Vigilance Bureau. The CM asked the officers to return to work immediately failing which, he said, they will be deemed absent from duty.
The buzz that Mann is coming out of the Delhi AAP’s shadow grew louder with the former getting his pictures put on every government project and campaign or event — from the mohalla clinics to government calendar, to even the annual diary printed by the public relations department.
The Opposition parties have always targeted Mann for being allegedly “remote-controlled” by the Delhi AAP dispensation led by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal. They have charged that the AAP’s Delhi leadership has been calling the shots in Punjab, citing Raghav Chadha’s appointment as the chairman of a government advisory panel last year as an example. Chadha had also held a few meetings of officers.
During the Punjab leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra recently, top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also made such allegations against the Mann dispensation. Addressing a rally in Pathankot, Rahul said he had told Mann that Punjab should be run only from Punjab and not from Delhi. “You (Bhagwant Mann) sat with me in Lok Sabha (when Mann was an MP). Aap mein aur Kejriwal mein bahut farak hai. (There is a huge difference between you and Kejriwal). I respect you and I am saying this from the Congress party’s stage. But Punjab should not be run from Delhi,” Rahul said.
Rahul also said that during the Yatra he asked a Punjab farmer about the Mann government’s performance, who told him, he claimed, that it was a “remote-controlled government”.
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