Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann did not attend three rallies in the heartland of Malwa region on Friday after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers and beneficiaries of the ‘blue card’ under the Atta Dal Scheme (for subsidised grains and pulses) resorted to protests over his remark that the scheme had made beggars out of people.
First, some protesters with black flags raised slogans against Mann near Gehri Buttar, Machhana, Sangat Mandi and Rampura Phul villages near Bathinda. Mann had to address a rally in support of AAP candidate from Bathinda (rural), Rupinder Kaur ‘Ruby’, at Sangat. But he did not reach the rally venue while leaders present there had no clue why. The party’s Punjab women’s wing president and candidate from Talwandi Sabo, Baljinder Kaur, who addressed the rally, said Mann was scheduled to address the gathering but he didn’t come and she had no information about reasons.
Mann reportedly had called up a police officer over the protests, but was told that to protest was a democratic right of the people. Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Swapan Sharma said, “Mann opted not to go ahead himself. Police didn’t stop him.”
Punjab’s rural development and panchayats minister Sikander Singh Maluka, whose stronghold is Rampura Phul, said that though party workers also protested against Mann for “insulting” the beneficiaries, “there were beneficiaries themselves too who resorted to protest spontaneously”.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab’s rural development and panchayats minister Sikander Singh Maluka, whose stronghold is Rampura Phul, said that though party workers also protested against Mann for “insulting” the beneficiaries, “there were beneficiaries themselves too who resorted to protest spontaneously”.
{{/usCountry}}After Sangat, Mann was scheduled to address a rally in Muktsar in support of party candidate Jagdeep Singh Brar but he didn’t reach there too. There, SAD workers burnt the effigy of Mann. In the evening, Mann didn’t reach a rally in Kotkapura in support of party candidate Kultar Singh Sandhwan.
He could not be contacted for comment as he did not take repeated phone calls.
Mann had made the ‘beggar’ faux pas on Tuesday, while interacting with media on sidelines of late Akali stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s daughter and son-in-law joining the AAP in Chandigarh. He had said the Punjab government is giving out “not blue, but ‘beggar’ cards”. Asked if he meant bluecard holders were beggars, he had clarified immediately that Akalis were making beggars out of people by putting them on doles. “Instead of giving people the ability to earn, the Akalis are making them dependent,” Mann had said.