Taking a suo motu cognizance of a viral video purportedly showing former Chief Minister and Congress candidate from Jalandhar Charanjit Singh Channi touching the chin of former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur, the Punjab State Commission for Women on Monday sought a detailed report into the matter from the state police chief.
 
In a letter addressed to the state’s Director General of Police (DGP), the Commission’s chairperson has requested a status report by May 14 regarding the incident captured in the video. The Commission emphasized that Bibi Jagir Kaur’s status as a former Cabinet Minister and former chief of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex body governing Sikh shrines.
 
The video in question depicts Channi meeting Bibi Jagir Kaur after filing his nomination papers in Jalandhar, where she was accompanying Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Mohinder Singh Kaypee. In the clip, Channi is seen grabbing Kaur’s hands, bowing, and engaging in banter, during which he touches her chin. Both leaders and their supporters are seen sharing laughter.
 
However, political rivals of Channi have begun circulating the video as memes on social media platforms.
 
Responding to the controversy, Channi stated that Bibi Jagir Kaur is like an elder sister to him, and his actions were out of respect. He clarified that he bowed as a gesture of respect when he met her.
 
Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Phillaur and Channi’s rival Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary has demanded action against the former Chief Minister asserting that his behaviour towards a Sikh woman was “disrespectful”.
 
Channi, who is contesting the Jalandhar seat on a Congress ticket, has recently faced criticism for his remarks regarding the Poonch terror attack, where he referred to it as a “stunt” intended to benefit the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. This statement drew condemnation from various political quarters.
 
He had called the Poonch terror attack in which an IAF soldier was killed a “poll stunt” meant to make the BJP win the Lok Sabha elections.
 
Last week, one soldier was killed and four were injured as terrorists ambushed an IAF convoy in Poonch district. Replying to a question on the attack on the Indian Air Force’s convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch, Channi had said, “Yeh stuntbaazi ho rahi hai, hamle nahi ho rahe (These are all stunts, not attacks)….Whenever elections are near, such stunts are performed to make the BJP win. There is no truth in it.”