Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Punjab’s law and order are going from bad to worse but chief minister Bhagwant Mann has no time to spare for it and his only job seems to be take the state aircraft for Arvind Kejriwal’s nationwide tours.
“Sometimes I wonder whether he is a chief minister or a pilot... Kejriwal’s countrywide tour is conducted by the Punjab chief minister,” Shah said, launching a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab.
Shah was addressing BJP’s rally organised on competition of nine years of BJP regime in the Centre at Gurdaspur in the presence of union ministers—Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Som Parkash—and former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani.
“In my entire life, I have not seen a government like the one led by AAP, which makes hollow promises. The chief minister has only one task. If Kejriwal has to go to Chennai, then he goes to Delhi in the aircraft to take him to Chennai. If he (Kejriwal) has to go to Kolkata, then again he (Mann) takes the aircraft and takes him to Kolkata. As a result of this, Punjab’s law and order is going from bad to worse,” Shah said.
Shah further said CM doesn’t have time to address the state’s problems.
{{/usCountry}}Shah further said CM doesn’t have time to address the state’s problems.
{{/usCountry}}“He (Mann) spends all his time touring with Kejriwal while the drug smuggling problem is growing in Punjab. People are not feeling safe. Problems of farmers are increasing. A minister is involved in sexually exploiting a Dalit, but no action has been taken,” Shah said, without naming the minister.
Attacking the AAP over its poll promises, Shah said, “I have come here to ask Mann and Kejriwal that you were to transfer ₹1,000 monthly to the bank accounts of the women of the state. Our mothers and sisters are waiting for this, but they have not got even a single penny so far. The AAP had made several other promises during polls but not delivered”.
Shah said instead of working to fulfil these promises, Mann is expanding the political base of Kejriwal by getting full-page advertisements published in the newspapers across the country.
“I can understand if the Punjab government gets these ads published in Punjab. The ads are being published in Gujarat, Kerala and West Bengal using state funds”, the home minister said.
Listing the achievements of the BJP-led government in the Centre, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a lot for the Sikhs.
“The 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh and 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak were celebrated on a large scale. He opened the Kartarpur corridor, besides executing other projects for the promotion of Sikh principles. December 26 was declared as Veer Bal Diwas as a tribute to Chhote Sahibzades. Langar was exempted from GST. Jallianwala Bagh memorial was given a facelift,” Shah said.
Disclosing BJP’s plan to tackle the drug menace in the state, Shah said an office of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) will be opened in Amritsar.
“The Prime Minister has vowed to make the country drug-free and to uproot the drug trade from Punjab an office of NCB will be opened in Amritsar within a month. BJP rank and file will also kick off Jan Jagran drive at tehsil and village level against the drugs,” Shah said.
He appealed to people to re-elect the BJP-led government at the Centre with more than 300 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying Modi has to be made Prime Minister again.
Reacting to Shah’s allegations, AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said that the home minister was telling lies about the law and order and other issues in Punjab because the BJP is scared of his party. “I want to ask Amit Shah Ji about Manipur, which is burning. North East is facing serious problems. What have you done there? He also talked about government advertisements. Why are UP, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand advertising in Punjab? Is that not public money?” he said.
On the AAP’s unfulfilled poll promise of ₹1,000 a month to women, Garg said the state government has fulfilled most of its poll guarantees. “We will fulfil the ₹1,000 per month poll guarantee too. People trust us,” he said