Congress conveys ‘strong displeasure’ to AAP: ‘Don’t use BJP vendetta tool’

Khaira, the Congress MLA from Bholath, is head of the AICC’s farmers’ wing, the All India Kisan Congress.

“It is an old case, and if you look at the nature of the case… it will become clear that it is nothing but vendetta politics. We have clearly told the AAP leadership it cannot be employing a BJP tool to target one of our leaders. We all have been attacking the BJP over vendetta politics. And if we end up doing the same in states ruled by us… then what is the difference between us and the BJP?” a senior Congress leader told The Indian Express.

He said the AAP leadership has been told that there may be political differences at the state level, but these should not play out like this. “We even got an ailing Manmohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha on a wheelchair to vote against the Delhi services Bill… What message is the AAP sending?” one leader said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge too lashed out at the AAP. Speaking to reporters in Chhattisgarh, where he had gone for a state government event, Kharge said he was seeking details about the case, but added: “A person who does injustice doesn’t last. Aur koi anyay hamare upar karega, toh anyay sahan karne wale log bi hum nahin hai (And if someone is unjust to us, we are not the kind who will bear it quietly).”

Apart from an irritant in ties between the AAP and Congress at the national level, Khaira’s arrest will further rile the Congress’s Punjab leadership, which has been strongly opposed to any electoral association with the AAP.

A delegation of the Punjab Congress, led by state chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, submitted a memorandum to the Punjab Governor Thursday evening.

The Punjab Congress accused the AAP government of “unleashing a political witch hunt”. Bajwa, the most vocal anti-AAP Congress voice, said: “We will fight this war against (Punjab Chief Minister) Bhagwant Mann with all vigour.” He warned Mann that “governments are not permanent”, while questioning the record of the Punjab Police, saying it is “notorious the world over for human rights violations”.

Warring, who visited Khaira’s family to discuss legal recourse, said the Punjab Congress “will knock every door of every court to get him bailed out”. “Politicians often say that it is jungle raaj when things are wrong. What is happening in Punjab now is real jungle raaj.”

At the Congress Working Committee earlier this month in Hyderabad, both Warring and Bajwa had argued against a tie-up with the AAP.

In turn, the AAP has been unhappy with the Congress over the slow pace in INDIA parties reaching a seat-sharing arrangement. It has been pressing that these be completed within a month, but the Congress is cautious and prefers to go slow.

Khaira, who was earlier in the AAP, said leaders in the party such as CM Mann, Cabinet minister Aman Arora, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhawan and MLA Baljinder Kaur, had earlier termed the same FIR in which he had been arrested “false”.

The Bholath legislator also hit out at the BJP, accusing it of deploying the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) case against him on the basis of the FIR, “as I used to fight UAPA cases and participate in the farm agitation”.

Several other Opposition parties in Punjab also criticised Khaira’s arrest. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Sangrur Member of Parliament Simranjit Singh Mann in a post on X called it a “witch hunt” against Khaira, calling him “a fierce critic” of the AAP government.

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If MLA’s are treated this way, what chance does the common man have?

I condemn the high handedness and derogatory behaviour of authorities during the arrest of Sardar Sukhpal Singh Khaira while entering his bedroom and humiliating him in front of his…

— Simranjit Singh Mann (@SimranjitSADA) September 28, 2023

Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia posted in Punjabi: “Though Khaira did not utter a word when a false case was registered against me, I condemn the way Khaira was arrested today.” He also offered Khaira every help.

BJP national secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said: “AAP is hellbent to take Punjab to the dark times of 80s/90s!”

The Punjab AAP hit back at both the Congress and BJP in posts, saying the two parties had themselves made allegations against Khaira in the past.