Rajinder Kaur Bhattal should name officers, seek probe: AAP

The chief spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab and MLA from Ajnala, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, reacted strongly to former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal’s statement regarding bomb blasts, saying that the Congress hatched major conspiracies to destroy Punjab for the sake of retaining power. Dhaliwal said that he himself is a victim of that dark period, adding that three members of his family and 25 residents of his village Jagdev Kalan were killed during that time.

“In 1980, when Sardar Darbara Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal was part of his cabinet, the first major incident near Dhilwan took place, where people belonging to one community were taken off a bus and brutally killed. After this incident, CRPF and paramilitary forces entered Punjab for the first time, and the state began slipping into debt, the burden of which Punjab continues to bear,” he said addressing the media today.

Dhaliwal said that former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, just about a month and a half ago, had also admitted that when he was a Congress MP, he got 25 youths to surrender, but all of them were later killed. He questioned where the bodies of those youths went and what their names were. He said it took Captain Amarinder 30 years to remember, and now he claims that he sometimes cannot even sleep.

The AAP leader said that during the 2017 Assembly elections, when there was widespread discussion about the Aam Aadmi Party winning 100 seats, the Maur bomb blast took place, after which the Congress formed the government. He said that Bhattal’s statement today brings those events into a clearer perspective.

Dhaliwal said that Bhattal often claims to be the daughter of freedom fighter Baba Hira Singh Bhattal. “If she truly loves Punjab, she must name the officers and leaders who advised carrying out bomb blasts. If she does not disclose the names, then she is also trampling upon the patriotism of her forefathers,” he said.

The MLA demanded that Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann order a thorough investigation into this statement. He said this is an extremely serious matter because thousands of people were killed in Punjab and many are still in jails. “These conspiracies must be exposed,” he asserted.

Earlier this week, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal’s statement in a televised interview triggered a political storm in Punjab as she admittedly said that she was advised to orchestrate bomb blasts to win leverage in elections.

Meanwhile, former acting Jathedar of Akal Takht, Giani Harpreet Singh, also posted on his X account, stating. “Former Chief Minister Bibi Rajinder Kaur Bhattal Ji should have come forward personally and publicly disclosed the names of those officers and advisers, who, for political gain, had advised carrying out bomb blasts in Punjab.” He went on to question the AAP government on filing an FIR and constituting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate the matter.