Miffed Kharge seeks report on arrest of Punjab MLA Khaira, party plans protest in state

Punjab Congress Working President Bharat Bhushan Ashu alleged that the State government was on a backfoot over the issues being raised by the Congress and the arrest of Khaira was an attempt to divert public attention from AAP’s failures, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi:Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is miffed over the arrest of Punjab MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira and has asked the state unit to fight out the matter both legally and politically. The arrest of Bolath MLA Khaira in an old drugs case has angered the grand old party leaders, who see the action as a “political witch-hunt” by the ruling AAP at a time when the two parties are exploring a pact for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of the INDIA alliance.

As a result, Kharge has sought a detailed report on the matter from Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Raja Brar and CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa, who have convened a meeting of all leaders and lawmakers on October 3 to chalk out the strategy for a statewide protest against the AAP government. “See, we are two different parties. There is an elected State government and it has to function. There are old cases against people. There cannot be witch-hunting if you need to have an alliance. But, you need to get down to the issue to know what has happened. We as a party need to know what exactly happened,” CWC member Syed Naseer Hussain told ETV Bharat.

According to Punjab Congress Working President Bharat Bhushan Ashu, both Brar and Bajwa briefed Kharge about the arrest of Khaira and its likely fallout in the state. “Both the leaders have spoken to Kharge and the AICC general secretary in-charge of the organisation KC Venugopal over the issue. While our legal team will fight out the matter in court, we have to give a political response also. We have convened a meeting of all senior leaders and MLAs in Chandigarh on October 3. We will chalk out the plan for a statewide protest. The entire party stands behind Khaira,” Ashu told ETV Bharat.

Ashu alleged that the State government was on a backfoot over the issues being raised by Congress and the arrest of Khaira was an attempt to divert public attention from AAP’s failures. “A lot of issues happened all of a sudden in the state. Khaira raised questions related to expenditure in the marriage of AAP leader Raghav Chadha. We raised questions about the Rs 50,000 crore loss to the state exchequer as the State government failed to generate Rs 20,000 crore in revenue from sand mining and another Rs 34,000 crore by stopping corruption. Then the sudden transfer of SSPs of Tarn Taran, who was being targeted by the AAP leaders, and an attack on a Muktsar-based lawyer came up. So, the State government was quite hassled and arrested our MLA in an old case to divert public attention from its failures. Now nobody is talking about the issues we were raising, only the Khaira issue is being discussed,” said Ashu.

The Punjab Congress Working President alleged that various party leaders, including himself, had been arrested by the AAP government in false cases in the past. “Tarun Sood, OP Soni, Kushaldeep Dhillon, and many others, including me have been arrested in false cases in the past. Khaira was targeted as he was questioning the State government. Khaira has done nothing wrong. Earlier, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann used to defend Khaira in the same case as both were in the AAP. Now things have changed as Khaira is in the Congress,” added Ashu.