The on-the-rocks relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has taken yet another hit. A day after senior RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja was shot at in Punjab, the saffron party on Sunday sent a stern message to its alliance partner, SAD.
The party’s power-that-be in the national Capital has asked Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take the issue “very seriously”. Sources in the party told The Pioneer that the BJP high command has taken the murderous attack on RSS leader very seriously and wanted no leniency in the matter.
It has been learnt that a message has been sent to Akali Dal and the Badals to “act immediately” in the matter and remain “extra careful”.
Punjab Government’s seriousness on the issue can be gauged from the fact that it wasted no time to constitute a special investigation team (SIT), that too under the State Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora.
“The entire BJP is shocked with the incident…a stern message has been sent to the State Government that no leniency should be taken to solve the matter and act against the culprits. They have
been asked to be extra careful and take immediate action,” a senior BJP leader in
Delhi said.
The leader maintained that such attacks could be an attempt by anti-social elements to “destabilise Punjab” ahead of the polls. “The attack on the leader of a social organisation like RSS could be an attempt by anti-social elements to destabilise the social harmony in the border State Punjab ahead of the coming Assembly polls,” said the leader.
Notably, such fatal assaults, on Sikh religious preacher Sant Ranjit Singh Dharianwale, wife of Namdhari sect head Mata Chand Kaur, among others, were witnessed in the recent past in Punjab, raising questions of the law and order situation in the State.
The party’s State senior leadership has also held a high-level meeting on Sunday, and demanded strict action against the culprits. The State leadership would also meet the Chief Minister Badal on Monday to demand stringent action against those who were involved in it.
Punjab BJP president and Union Minister Vijay Sampla also condemned the attack.
BJP core committee met in Jalandhar in the wake of attack on Brig Gagneja by unidentified bike-borne assailants.
Terming the incident as “a matter of concern”, Sampla asked the State police to remain extra vigilant to prevent such incidents in future.
Strongly condemning the attack, BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh demanded a high-level probe into the attack. Chugh asked the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to order a high-level probe so that the culprits were identified, arrested and punished according to law.
He also asked the State police chief to fix a deadline for the SIT constituted to crack this case. “DGP needs to fix a time-frame for the identification and arrest of all culprits and masterminds behind the attack,” he said.
Seeking to relate the incident to RSS spreading its wings in the rural areas for the expansion of organisation, Chugh said that the attack was possibly planned and executed by “the forces that are not feeling comfortable with the response RSS is getting in the rural areas of Punjab”.
Interestingly, the rural areas of the State is considered to be SAD’s stronghold, while urban that of the BJP.
The State BJP’s firebrand MlA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu demanded CBI probe into the matter.
Mincing no words, Dr Navjot Kaur said that expecting anything from the Punjab Government would be redundant, while appealing to the people of the State to save themselves from the people who want to disrupt the
State’s peace “as this is the time for change”.
Another BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said that this was not for the first time, “even about a month back, a shooting incident had taken place outside a RSS shakha in ludhiana”.
Expressing concern, the leader said that somewhat similar incidents were reported before the dark period of militancy in Punjab in the 1980s, “and that is why the police and the Government should take it more seriously as this is an election year, and anti-social elements may
try to disturb Punjab’s communal harmony”.