Rocking in the rough political seas, the Congress faced another setback when former CWC member Jagmeet Brar on Monday left the party after being associated with it for 35 years. lambasting the party for handing over the reins of the party to “dynastic politicians”, Brar tendered his resignation amidst speculation that he would join the BJP during Amit Shah’s Amritsar rally, scheduled for January 22.
Brar declared that he, “with a brief note to the Congress president on December 23”, tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the All India Congress Committee, “breaking all connections whatsoever with it”.
Keeping cards close to his chest, Brar maintained that he was not joining any political party, as of now, and would take call on his future course of action by consulting his friends, supporters, and “sympathizers”.
“I am starting from Ropar tomorrow…from Madauli village which is the native place of Shaheed Kanshi Ram who was first to sacrifice his life for the freedom of country…I will hold no rallies, no gatherings…all I want is to meet people, have their advice…my target is to meet at least 5000 people from the state,” said Brar, while making public his decision of severing ties with Congress and sharing his future plans.
Attacking the Congress and also the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) left, right and centre for ‘dynasty politics’, Brar was all praise for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his style of functioning and raising the drug issue — enough to indicate his inclination towards the saffron party.
He even went on to say that BJP does not follow dynastic politics, nor he see it as a communal party, adding that 2017 state assembly polls would see both traditional parties in Punjab — Congress and the SAD — being replaced by leaders with good vision.
He showered praised on Modi's saying that during seven months in office, he has emerged as a determined leader. He also appreciated Modi for raising drug issue in the state through his radio programme. “I appreciate him…Punjab is not facing a political crisis, it is facing crisis of survival of next generation. I appreciate the step of government of India on drug menace,” he said.
Brar is expected to join the saffron brigade during the Amit Shah’s rally to launch party’s anti-drug campaign. It is believed that considering bitter relations with its ally, the SAD, BJP is working out modalities to go solo in the next assembly polls, and for the same it is in search of prominent Sikh faces in the state. BJP is already strengthening its base in the state, by reaching out to the people from unexplored territories, including rural areas, dalits, among others.
Grapevine is that Brar’s entry into the party is being engineered by former Congressman and Union Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh — with whom he was suspended from the party in August last on the charges of indiscipline. Birender Singh later joined the BJP.
Brar, former lok Sabha MP from Faridkot, was suspended after he criticized the party's functioning asking the party's top leadership, including Sonia Gandhi an Rahul Gandhi, to go on sabbatical in the wake of the lok Sabha debacle.
Sharing his heart out, Brar maintained that he could not tolerate the “humiliation” caused by his party. He said that in the recent past, there had been a number of “dishonourable sanctions” against him for “speaking out” his mind to uphold the democratic values. “And I have waited long enough to see them revoked,” he said.
He alleged that the party lacked “internal democracy” and was surrounded by “sycophants”, leading to “marginalization” of regional party leaders. “This great party that had once brought independence to our great nation has been reduced to a mere self-serving family undertaking, which shares the party functioning, at the maximum, with a small number of party oligarchs, which envelop and insulate it from a common dialogue ultra-necessary for the democratic functioning of any political party,” he alleged in his letter addressed to the media.
Brar, without naming former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and State Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa, alleged them for ruining the party.