Parliamentary elections in Punjab are over but its tremors can still be felt. Even though a week has lapsed since the polling day, the Punjab Congress is moving from one authority to another alleging victimisation of its workers during the polling process.
The party has alleged that false cases are being registered against its workers, besides several incidents of attacks on party workers, and their harassment.
As Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday raised the issue in his “open letter” to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, urging him to “immediately stop” the victimisation of the Congress workers, leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Sunil Jakhar, along with the party legislators and leaders, took up the matter with the State police chief.
Apprehending more attacks after May 16 — the day of counting of votes — Bajwa asked Badal, also the patron of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), that the “attack on the Congress workers must stop immediately. We further apprehend that after May 16, these attacks out of sheer frustration will increase”.
He cited the instances of “brutally assaulting” the Congress workers at several places in the State in the aftermath of elections “with violent incidents having been reported from Rampura Phul in Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Moga and Khadoor Sahib area”.
In no unclear terms, Bajwa asserted, “The Congress would not tolerate such goondaism being indulged in by the Akali activists under the patronage of the state police… Peaceful protest is our constitutional right. There would be equal and opposite reaction to such action.”
Bajwa said: “As the Chief Minister, it is your primary duty to maintain law and order and you cannot hide under the logic of Home Department being with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, who is your son.”
He said that the SAD has “once again failed to abide by the democratic ethos and as always, has started unleashing politics of vendetta against the Congress workers within no time of the polling having been over”.
Condemning the SAD’s attitude and the alleged “collusion of law and order machinery with the culprits”, Bajwa said that it also “betrays your defeatist attitude… the Congress workers cannot be terrorised and demoralised through these deplorable actions.”
On the other hand, Jakhar alleged that the ruling SAD is terrorizing and harassing the people who supported the Congress openly during the recently-held lok Sabha polls.
Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader, in his meeting with the state Director General of Police Suresh Kumar Arora, alleged, “fake cases are being registered against the party workers and supporters, even the MlAs are being threatened”.
Jakhar pointed that the police was neither taking any action against the Akali leaders against whom the cases have been registered, nor they were taken into custody.
“On the other hand, the Congress workers were arrested along with their family member after registering cases against them,” said Jakhar, who was accompanied by MlAs Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Raja Amarinder Singh Warring, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Parminder Singh Pinki, and Joginder Singh Panjgrain, besides former MlAs Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon, and darshan Singh Brar.
listing out array incidents of victimization by the hands of the ruling party, Jakhar said that his supporters in Malaout had been arrested, and their family members were being harassed.
Seeking the suspension of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and Station House Officer (SHO) of Baghapurana, Jakhar said that bullets were fired at Congress workers despite the fact that all the arms were to be deposited before the elections. “From where the Akalis got the armsIJ Their responsibility should be fixed,” said Jakhar.
Even in the past, the Congress party has alleged vendetta against party workers by the ruling regime — something that the SAD has all along been denying. In fact, Chief Minister Badal had presented a complete list of alleged vendetta cases of the Congress workers in the Vidhan Sabha.