less than 72 hours after a jobless youngster hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during an Independence Day function at a village near ludhiana, the politics over the incident is hotting up with the latest attack by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kicking hard at AAP’s Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, the SAD has alleged that the comedian-turned-politician was the “kingpin” in the shoe-hurling incident. Mann, on the other hand, denied the charges maintaining that Badal wanted to get sympathy.
The allegations and counter allegations come at a time when the SAD and AAP are locked in a fierce triangular political battle for supremacy with the Congress in two Assembly seats in Punjab.
SAD general secretary and core committee member Maheshinder Singh Grewal on Monday urged AAP to take action against Mann who “is the kingpin behind the extremely provocative and vulgar act at the Issru conference in ludhiana district on Independence Day”.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that persons involved in conspiracy to disrupt Issru conference were in touch with Bhagwant Mann….By openly becoming associated with acts aimed at disturbing law and order situation in Punjab, Sangrur MP has proven that he can stoop to any level to fulfill his desire to attempt to degrade his political opponents. Now it is for the AAP high command to take cognisance of this act and take appropriate action against Mann,” he said.
An unemployed, 23-year-old Bikram Singh hurled a shoe at Badal during an Independence Day function. The shoe missed Badal by a whisker and fell just short of his security cordon on the stage.
Bikram, who was immediately detained by the police, maintained that his attack was not meant to harm Badal but it was a sign of protest against the mounting corruption and unemployment, disappointment with the Chief Minister’s chair leading to drug meance in Punjab.
Even as Badal stated that he had pardoned the shoe-thrower, Punjab police on Sunday booked Bikram under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code including 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), and 353 (assault or criminal force with intent to deter public servant from his duty), among others.
Earlier, he was booked under Sections 107, 151 of Criminal procedure Code (CrPC) which are bailable but the accused was sent to judicial remand till August 25.
Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira tried to bail him out, alleging that the police and administration, under “political pressure from Badals”, deliberately did not grant him bail on Saturday.
The police also arrested the other co-accused — Mahinderpal Singh, Hardev Singh and Hardeep. DIG ludhiana range GS Dhillon, on Saturday, stated that the two allegedly met Mann after the incident at Jarag village and called him up to update him.
Rebutting the allegations, Mann said that all the allegations against him are “baseless”. He said that he was not aware of the person’s name…”and it was only after his wife called me up as people’s representative for help that I got to know about it….I advise Badals to stop attempts to defame me”.
Badal was not the only Chief Minister to have faced such a humiliation. A farmer had hurled a shoe at his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda during an official function at Dabwali in Sirsa district in February 2014, but fell short of the target.
Exploiting the issue, the state Congress has blamed the Chief Minister “for inflicting extreme vengeance upon unemployed and defenceless Bikram Singh by pressurizing Khanna police to slap non-bailable charges against him”.
Asking Badal to learn generosity and magnanimity lessons from USA’s former president George Bush, country’s former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who all thought it befitting and appropriate to pardon such attackers, Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira condemned the “double standards” of Badal and the SGPC.
Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh also reminded Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of how his party controlled SGPC honoured Jarnail Singh after he hurled a shoe at the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. “You are reaping what you sowed”, he told Badal.
“You also offered him a job for this act”, he reminded Badal while asking him not to be so harsh and ruthless with the youth who also hurled a shoe at him and has now been booked under non-bailable offence by the Punjab Police besides having been subjected to torture in police custody.
Capt Amarinder said, he was strongly against such incidents and this evil must be nipped in the bud. “While I strongly condemn any such incident, at the same time I want you to be considerate as you often compare yourself with Maharaja Ranjit Singh and don’t be so harsh on the youth”, he told Badal.
“You cannot offer rewards and jobs to one person and subject another one to rigorous torture and third degree interrogation besides slapping harsh non bailable charges on him for a similar thing”, he pointed out, while hoping, that Badal may be little kind and considerate and try to be as magnanimous as he thinks and claims himself to be.