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Row over BJP outreach camps: Sunil Jakhar detained by cops in Fazilka, released later
Fazilka SSP Gurmeet Singh, in an official statement, defended the police action, calling it essential to preserve law and order as well as to protect citizens’ personal data
Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar, his nephew and Abohar MLA Sandeep Jakhar, along with former minister Surjit Kumar Jiyani, were taken into custody by police at Balluana in the border district of Fazilka on Friday when they were attempting to hold an ‘awareness camp’ in Abohar. The trio was released after four hours.
Soon after being released, Jakhar slammed the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government for trying to ‘silence him using the police’.
Asserting that he would not be intimidated, Jahkar said stopping camps was “undemocratic and unconstitutional.”
“The state government failed to implement central welfare initiatives, leaving the poor to suffer. We will approach the high court against the stopping of its camps. The rights of the people will be delivered, and the BJP will not rest until every rupee meant for Punjab’s poor through central schemes reaches them,” he said.
Fazilka SSP Gurmeet Singh, in an official statement, defended the police action, calling it essential to preserve law and order as well as to protect citizens’ personal data. He stressed that the state government has issued strict directions for the enforcement of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, under which gathering personal information without consent constitutes a serious and punishable offence.
“To examine the issue further, an inquiry committee, including the SDM Abohar, DSP Balluana, and the SHO of Sadar Abohar police station, will investigate the matter,” the SSP said.
Around 11am, Jakhar and other BJP leaders gathered at the toll plaza on the Abohar-Situ road, where they addressed party supporters. As soon as Jakhar’s speech ended, the police took him into custody, escorting him separately in a police vehicle. The other BJP leaders and workers were escorted into a bus. By late afternoon, Jakhar had been shifted to the Sadar Abohar police station.
The confrontation comes after Thursday’s developments when the police detained nearly 500 saffron party leaders and workers to thwart the party’s plan to hold “awareness camps” as part of its outreach programme at 39 places in the state. A party delegation had also met governor Gulab Chand Kataria in this regard on Thursday.
The BJP claims that these camps are being held to ensure that the benefits of the central schemes, including Ayushman Bharat and Kisan Samman Nidhi, and others, reach the poor, farmers, women, and marginalised groups in the state and has accused the AAP government in the state of using ‘coercive tactics’ to obstruct its outreach efforts.
The AAP government, however, countered that intelligence reports suggested private operators, allegedly linked to the BJP, were illegally gathering sensitive data from residents on the pretext of welfare enrolments.
On Thursday, Jakhar had hit out at CM Mann announced that the BJP would restart its camp at Raipur village in Fazilka and dared the CM to arrest him.
Meanwhile, BJP workers held protests in all 117 assembly constituencies of the state against the police crackdown on the outreach programme.
Former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh condemned the arrest of BJP workers. He said that instead of strengthening law and order, curbing the rampant drug trade, and addressing the growing incidents of crime, the Punjab Police is being “shamefully misused as a political tool to suppress the BJP’s lawful and democratic initiatives”.
“It is because of the total collapse of governance under Bhagwant Mann that the BJP had to step in and connect people with central government schemes. Instead of welcoming this outreach, the state government is resorting to high-handed tactics of arrests, harassment, and disruption,” he said.
Camps a ploy to manipulate voter lists: Cheema
Chandigarh Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday said that no individual, including members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be allowed to collect personal data from the public under any pretext.
Addressing a press conference here, Cheema questioned whether the BJP would take responsibility for any fraud that might occur as a result of their members collecting data through camps.
He said the government was taking action against them to protect the personal data of people under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. “The BJP is a ‘vote thief party’ since it formed the government at the Centre in 2014. These data collection camps in Punjab are a ploy to manipulate voter lists,” he alleged. HTC
