Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann slams Centre for decision to land US deportees’ flight in Amritsar

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann says Centre is conspiring to defame Punjab and make it look like only Punjabis migrate illegally

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday questioned the decision to land another plane carrying Indian deportees from the US at the Amritsar airport as he hit out at the Centre, accusing it of trying to defame Punjab.

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann with state NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal addressing a press conference in Amritsar on Friday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

A flight carrying 119 illegal Indian immigrants is likely to land at the Amritsar airport around 10 pm on February 15, said official sources on Friday. This is the second such flight from the US. Earlier on February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 deportees had landed here.

Interacting with media persons, CM Mann, who reached Amritsar to receive the deportees arriving on Saturday and Sunday, said, “Despite Punjab being the food bowl and sword arm of India, the BJP-led Centre discriminates against it. It does not let go of any chance to defame Punjab.”

“The first US plane carrying illegal Indian immigrants had 33 people from Haryana and Gujarat each and 30 from Punjab. But it landed in Amritsar. Now, the second plane will also land here. Why? What is the criterion for choosing Amritsar? Why not the national capital?” said Mann, adding that it appears to be a deliberate attempt to portray that only Punjabis migrate illegally.

He further said that the Centre has converted the holy city of Amritsar into a “deportation centre”.

Saturday’s flight is set to have 67 natives of Punjab, 33 of Haryana, eight of Gujarat, three of Uttar Pradesh, two each of Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently in the US, Mann asked whether he was bringing a “gift” from the country, referring to another plane of illegal Indian immigrants. The CM added that it was a diplomatic failure that on one hand the PM was shaking hands with US president Donald Trump, on the other, Indians were being handcuffed and shackled for deportation.