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Congress stages sit-in at Khatkar Kalan, demands Sarari’s dismissal
Addressing the workers, leader of the opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa, criticised Bhagwant Mann’s stance on Sarari, alleging that he was deliberately protecting the minister.
Punjab Congress led by its president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Punjab Vidhan Sabha leader of opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa staged a sit-in protest in front of Shaheed Bhagat Singh memorial at Khatkar Kalan, ancestral village of the martyr in SBS Nagar on Friday and demanded dismissal and arrest of minister Fauja Singh Sarari on corruption charges. Addressing the dharna, Warring said, if the government did not take any action against Sarari, the party would intensify its agitation across the state. He said, today’s dharna was only symbolic to serve an ultimatum to the government that it cannot have double standards. “On the one hand Congress leaders are booked and jailed without any evidence and on the other hand the minister against whom there is an open and shut case, was roaming scot-free”, he pointed out. The PCC president also announced that the Congress party will stage a protest at Mohali on November 1 to protest against the intimidation and victimization of the Congress workers at the grassroots level.
Speaking on the occasion, leader of the opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa criticised Bhagwant Mann’s “double standards” on Sarari, alleging that he was deliberately protecting the minister. He said Sarari incident had completely exposed Mann and warned that the Congress party will not rest till the minister was not removed. He condemned Arvind Kejriwal for equating Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh with tainted ministers like Satyender Jain and Manish Sisodia. He pointed out, while Shaheed Bhagat Singh had sacrificed his life for the freedom of the country at such a young age, the two tainted ministers with whom Kejriwal was trying to compare the great martyr were neck deep in corruption.
Former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said, Jain and Sisodia were facing serious charges and investigations by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation with offshore accounts and assets worth crores of rupees. He said it was shameful on part of Kejriwal to compare and equate Shaheed Bhagat Singh with such people. He alleged that they had amassed huge wealth through corruption to fill AAP coffers and it was outrageous to equate such people with Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He said the Congress party decided not only to pay homage to the great martyr, at his ancestral village but also remind and warn the AAP leaders that they will not allow any insult to the martyrs like that. Bhagat Singh, he added, did not sacrifice his life for any sect or state but the entire country. He advised AAP leaders to learn to respect the martyrs. Former deputy chief minister OP Soni, MLA Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, MP Khadoor Sahib, Jasbir Dimpa, MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh, Deputy CLP, Raj Kumar and others remained present on the occasion.
