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Journalism of Courage
The top Congress leadership on Friday united in its condemnation of the arrest of AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, taking to the streets of the national capital in protest. But the party is not speaking in one voice and this is most visible in Punjab where the Congress is the principal Opposition to the AAP government led by Bhagwant Mann.
State Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, “We are totally against vendetta politics, whether it happens in Punjab or at the national level. Using investigative agencies like CBI, ED, and Vigilance Bureau as a tool to target Opposition leaders will only weaken our democratic process.”
Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira, who was arrested by the Punjab Police in connection with a 2015 case, on Friday said Kejriwal “deserved” the arrest. “I hope Arvind Kejriwal has got a befitting answer from the ED, which has called him the ‘kingpin’ of the (Delhi) liquor scandal. He had made fraudulent allegations against me and called me a smuggler on public platforms when I was in jail,” he said.
Khaira added, “These fake revolutionaries inflicted false criminal cases against their opponents in Punjab and surpassed the brutality of BJP. The saying — you reap whatever you sow — applies to Arvind Kejriwal. He and his team have been branding politicians like us and arresting them. The kattar imaandar (the staunch and faithful) has been arrested in a corruption case. Hope people are able to see his real face.”
Former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu also spoke similarly and said he was calling “a spade a spade”. Ashu, a former food and civil supplies minister, was arrested on August 22, 2022 in an alleged corruption case related to the transportation of food grains. He got bail in this case on March 25 last year.
The Congress’s Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu took to X to say: “Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann has been giving big advertisements across the country that 300 persons have been arrested in various corruption cases so far. Now, they can change the number to 301. A similar excise policy has been implemented in Punjab involving Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema. It looks like the number will soon be 302.”
He said Kejriwal and the AAP had risen to power promising “jan swaraj (people’s rule)” and the appointment of Lokpal, but “ironically turned out to be the biggest thugs”. “This corruption case (excise policy) in Delhi is just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Bittu claimed that AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha had “looted money” from Punjab and that it was “yet to be recovered”. Bittu questioned Chadha’s absence — he had been in London for an eye surgery over the past few days — during the arrest.
Two FIRs have been launched against Bittu this year. On February 27, he was booked — along with Ashu — for allegedly creating a ruckus outside the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation headquarters and creating hindrance in the working of a government office after he had locked its gate, protesting against the AAP government. He was arrested and released on bail. In March, the Ludhiana police booked Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and his supporters for allegedly stopping the operations of the carcass utilisation plant in Nurpur Bet village on January 25.
Sanjay Talwar, the Ludhiana district Congress committee president said: “The law should take its course. AAP leaders used to say the same after arresting rival party leaders. They should also believe in the court of law.”
Meanwhile, the Congress’s national leadership on Thursday said Kejriwal’s arrest shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “rattled” by the strength of the INDIA bloc and asserted this would strengthen the alliance further in the Lok Sabha polls.
