Punjab Congress on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of two persons in ‘police firing’ near Kotkapura and demanded imposition of the President’s Rule in the State.
Asking Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to quit, Congress Deputy leader in lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh said that the he “has virtually lost control over things and the State is drifting towards anarchy”.
Asserting that the situation in Punjab was “going from bad to worse”, Capt Amarinder said that Badal should quit if he was not able to maintain law and order in the State.
“Trying to assert your authority by use of brute force and killing unarmed protesters is not going to restore your image and credibility that has been eroded beyond any hope of redemption,” he told Badal while warning the Chief Minister not to add fuel to the fire.
Holding Badal squarely responsible for the current situation including the loss of two lives, the former Chief Minister said: “Whenever situation has demanded, Badal has always failed to rise to the occasion by letting down people of Punjab. And, he has failed again.”
“This is not the way to deal with hurt sentiments of people...Police are expected to exercise utmost restraint under such situations, but unfortunately today they turned trigger happy…Instead of identifying the culprits and bringing them to book, the Akali-BJP Government has killed
and injured ‘innocent’ protesters,” he said.
Slamming the Punjab Government for police firing in Faridkot, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa demanded imposition of President’s rule saying that the SAD-BJP regime was letting loose a reign of terror against the people after having failed on all fronts.
“Today’s unprovoked firing by the police on the people staging peaceful dharna is the latest example,” he said.
Bajwa claimed that the districts of Moga and Faridkot had turned into a police state and a curfew like situation prevails there. “Failure of the police to arrest the culprits responsible for the act of sacrilege in Bargari village led to the unrest among the people,” he said.
Accusing the police of becoming subservient to the political interests of the Badal family, he said that the situation would have serious ramifications in the long run and demanded a high level inquiry into the police firing incident.
Attacking Chief Minister, Bajwa said that Badal’s main problem was his politics of opportunism and Punjab, a sensitive state, had
earlier paid a heavy cost for his similar ineptitude and the State could not be allowed to burn.
Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, lambasting the Chief Minister and his deputy son Sukhbir Badal for not maintaining the law and order in the State, condemned the violence and the deaths, besides the “brutal attitude of the police force towards the agitators”.
“The police blatantly used force to disperse agitators while there are ways and means to talk to them and pacify them. Why the culprits of this incident have not been identified yetIJ If the Punjab police is incompetent of handling investigation, it should be handed over to some central agency,” he demanded.
He alleged that the State’s intelligence wing, which gives information regarding any untoward incident, has collapsed. “This is the condition in the constituency, which is represented by the Badals what to talk about any other area of Punjab,” he said.