Cong workers ''beat up'' poster boy of Amarinder’s debt waiver scheme

GURDASPUR: A 58-year-old farmer who became the poster boy of Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s loan waiver scheme was allegedly attacked by some Congress leaders in Batala’s Kotli Surat Malhi village on Sunday.

Budh Singh. Tribune file photo

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, July 7

A 58-year-old farmer who became the poster boy of Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s loan waiver scheme was allegedly attacked by some Congress leaders in Batala’s Kotli Surat Malhi village on Sunday.

A policeman, Amritpal Singh Randhawa—an additional SHO rank officer—was also attacked, police sources said.

Sources said some Congress leaders led by Hardev Singh Goldy Bhamra, son of Congress block president Sawinder Singh Bhamra, were beating up the farmer on Saturday when Amritpal Singh Randhawa, who was on his way to some meeting, stopped his vehicle to intervene.

Sources said the policeman had to be taken to the civil hospital for the injuries he sustained in the attack.

Budh Singh’s wife Sarabjit Kaur said her husband was wounded and was currently recovering. “He is not in a position to speak,” she said.

Shiromani Akali Dal called for an investigation into the incident.

Majha Zone SAD Youth president Ravi Karan Kahlon said: “It is unfortunate that an innocent farmer has got trapped in a political quagmire not of his making. The culprits should be arrested immediately. It is a complete breakdown of the law and order machinery”.

Budh Singh, now an Akali worker, first shot to prominence on October 16, 2016, when Amarinder Singh, still Congress party’s Punjab chief then, announced his Karza Kurki Khatam, Fasal Di Poori Rakam’ initiative, or the debt waiver scheme, from the farmer’s ramshackle tenement.

Senior Superintendent of Police Opinderjit Singh Ghuman said a case would be registered once police finished their preliminary inquiry.

Police have yet to investigate reasons for the attack, but initial reports indicate it could be political, sources said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa claimed that he had spoken to senior officers to have the culprits booked and rounded up.

Congress government, which first promised Budh Singh debt waiver, later cited technicality to say that it could not be written off. Politicians from rival SAD then began to make overtures, with former cabinet minister Bikram Majithia visiting his house and handing him a cheque of Rs 3.86 lakh earlier this year, drawing Congress condemnation.

Budh Singh later joined SAD, leaving the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee red-faced.