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Police use water cannons on protesting Punjab Cong leaders
Hundreds of party workers from all over the state converged on the Punjab Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh before starting their march towards the Raj Bhawan, but they were stopped on the way by the Chandigarh Police with water cannons.
Chandigarh : The Punjab Congress on Thursday staged a protest against the alleged “implication” of party president Sonia Gandhi in a false case by the BJP government at the Centre and her questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Hundreds of party workers from all over the state converged on the Punjab Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh before starting their march towards the Raj Bhawan, but they were stopped on the way by the Chandigarh Police with water cannons. Several of them were also detained and released later. The demonstration was led by Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa.
Addressing the protesters, Warring said that their fight was not for the Congress president alone, but for each and every citizen of the country who supported democracy, freedom and liberty. The BJP government at the Centre was badly mistaken if it thought that it could intimidate the Congress this way, he said, expressing gratitude to party workers who had joined the protest despite heavy rain that lashed the region overnight.
The PPCC chief also cautioned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab against victimising the Congress leaders and workers. “We do not like to scare and threaten people by keeping red diaries, but we know how to defend ourselves,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Bajwa condemned the central government for trying to intimidate the Congress leadership. He said the government also knew that nothing was going to come out of this case but it only wanted to create a false perception. He pointed out that Rahul Gandhi was earlier questioned for five days, for 12 hours each day, and they (ED) had now summoned the Congress president for questioning. “Not only the Congressmen, but the entire country was upset and disappointed that the Modi government was intimidating the members of a family which had sacrificed so much for the country, before and after the Independence,” he said.
He also lashed out at all those leaders, who were relaxing in foreign countries, leaving the party and its workers to fight their own battle. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Pargat Singh, Aruna Chaudhary, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Rana Gurjit Singh, Lakhvir Singh Lakha, and Brinder Dhillon were among the party leaders present.
