A day after former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh alleged that two parliamentarians of Aam Aadmi Party from Punjab have Naxalite links, the new-entrant party on Monday accused the Amritsar MP of allowing drug mafia to enter the State during his tenure.
“Enquiries would trace trail of entering drug mafia into Punjab to his (Amarinder’s) tenure that has flourished further during the present regime (SAD-BJP combine),” alleged AAP’s Punjab unit spokesperson Prof Manjit Singh.
“Does Capt Amarinder wish to cover up narco-terrorism he let enter into Punjab from across the border,” questioned Prof Manjit, in an official statement issued on Monday.
The former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader had, a day before, alleged that Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi and Faridkot MP Prof Sadhu Singh had links with the Naxal movement.
Capt Amarinder, in his statement, had alleged that Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi and Faridkot MP Sadhu Singh and another leader Balbir Singh, who is planning to contest from Patiala city vacated by Capt Amarinder Singh after his election from Amritsar lok Sabha constituency, were actively involved with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-leninist).
Amritsar MP had also challenged the party to deny that they were not involved in the Naxal movement.
Asserting the popularity of AAP MPs in Punjab, Prof Manjit said, “Capt Amarinder fails to understand that if dedicated social workers such as Dr Dharamvir Gandhi and Prof Sadhu Singh who have thousands of fans in Punjab are dubbed as naxalites, he would actually be encouraging the youth to become naxalites instead of dissuading them away from it.”
AAP had bagged four seats from Punjab in the lok Sabha elections held recently.
Taking a dig at Congress party’s drubbing in the elections, Prof Manjit said, “It would have been better if Capt Amarinder would have taken some time away from character assassination and gone into introspection of the massive rejection of his party by the Indian masses.”
He also attacked Capt Amarinder by saying that senior Congress leader like him is expected to talk more on issues rather than indulging into character assassination of popular AAP leaders.