AAP names & shames ‘corrupt’ Akali leaders

BAGHAPURANA (MOGA): Raising its anti-corruption rhetoric for the upcoming Punjab elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday promised to jail four Shiromani Akali

Updated on: Sep 12, 2016, 07:32:42 IST

By Aarish Chhabra

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

BAGHAPURANA (MOGA): Raising its anti-corruption rhetoric for the upcoming Punjab elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday promised to jail four Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ministers in the Parkash Singh Badal government if voted to power.

Releasing the party manifesto at a massive rally in Baghapurana village near Moga, AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal levelled corruption charges against Tota Singh (agriculture), Adaish Partap Singh Kairon (food and civil supplies), Bikram Singh Majithia (revenue) and Sikander Singh Maluka (rural development). While Kairon is the son-in-law of chief minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal, Majithia is the brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal (wife of the CM’s son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal).

This is probably the first time a party has published electoral documents promising to imprison political rivals. The team that prepared the manifesto was led by former journalist Kanwar Sandhu, who read out some points of the manifesto.

Kejriwal’s speech did not touch upon any of the recent controversies dogging the party, be it the sacking of Sucha Singh Chhotepur as state AAP convener or the failure of talks with former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. He, however, did underline how “AAP has been the first party since Independence to sack three ministers (in Delhi) over corruption charges”.

The focus of Kejriwal’s speech lay on farmers and corruption.

The AAP convener began his speech by reiterating his promise to bag the ‘holy city’ status for Amritsar and Ananadpur Sahib within two months of coming to power. He then went on to blame successive Congress and SADBJP governments for “snatching the joy out of farmers’ lives” over the last 10-15 years.

Kejriwal accused Tota Singh of supplying spurious pesticides to cotton farmers, Kairon of making foodgrain worth Rs 12,000 crore “go missing”, and Majithia of running a narcotics racket. “They will be jailed, and their property will be confiscated to build schools, hospitals and roads,” he said, adding that buses owned by Badal will be handed over to unemployed youngsters.

The manifesto made specific mention of a plan to re-enact the Sir Chhotu Ram Act-1934 to ease debts owed to non-institutional moneylenders. “Under no circumstances will the interest exceed the principal amount,” he said.

Another key promise was the waiver of bank loans for “poor” farmers, labourers, SCs and BCs, besides a complete halt on coercive action by banks against defaulters until December 2018.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aarish Chhabra
Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.